News

8th April 2021

Luck runs out for Italian lotto staff whose friends won €24m

Staff at Italy’s national lottery hacked into company computers to identify winning numbers and claim €24 million for friends and family, police said. Luxury cars, villas, cash and shares have been seized after employees acquired enormous wealth while managing the popular scratch-and-win card scheme, which has paid out €90 billion… Read More

8th April 2021

Actor Accused by SEC of $690 Million Fraud Based on Fake Netflix Deal

Zachary Horwitz never made it big on the Sunset Strip — there was the uncredited part in Brad Pitt’s “Fury” and a host of roles in low-budget thrillers and horror flicks. But federal charges suggest he had acting talent, duping several financial firms out of hundreds of millions of dollars… Read More

7th April 2021

Hong Kong Courts the Rich as China Tightens Its Grip

Political opposition has been quashed. Free speech has been stifled. The independent court system may be next. But while Hong Kong’s top leaders take a tougher line on the city of more than seven million people, they are… Read More

7th April 2021

Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor’s UK Assets Under Review

By Lara Dihmis and Tom Stocks, OCCRP, 7 April 2021 OCCRP — British MP and anti-corruption advocate Margaret Hodge reported Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salame and his associates to the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) for money laundering and corrupt practices. Hodge’s cabinet confirmed to… Read More

7th April 2021

Lawyers, accountants face tougher rules, higher costs to act as company directors

An army of warranted professionals in Malta – accountants, auditors, lawyers and notaries – are balking at new rules removing their exemption from onerous authorisation by the financial regulator (MFSA) to act as company officers. The pressure on Malta to tighten up its corporate governance rules by the Council of… Read More

7th April 2021

BitMEX’s CEO surrenders in Hawaii, released on $10M bond

Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes surrendered to United States authorities in Hawaii on Tuesday, six months after federal prosecutors first levied charges against him and three fellow BitMEX executives. In a statement, Hayes’ lawyers described the Singapore resident as “a self-made entrepreneur who has been wrongly… Read More

7th April 2021

UK Police Dismantles Dark Web Drug Ring

By Juliett Pineda, OCCRP, 6 April 2021 OCCRP — British authorities said they have seized drugs worth 4.3 million pounds (nearly US$6 million) from suspected members of a criminal network that sold MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, amphetamines and other narcotics on the dark web. The… Read More

7th April 2021

Record French Fine Slashed as Latvian Bank Wins Tax Appeal

Latvian lender Rietumu Banka won a 75% reduction in what was once France’s highest criminal fine for a company. Rietumu, which had allegedly helped clients of a company-registration and advisory firm dodge taxes, will still have to pay 20 million euros ($23.6 million), down from the… Read More

7th April 2021

Organized Real Estate Fraud Rings Threaten Property Owners in Costa Rica

With owners of expensive lots kept away from Costa Rica because of COVID-19 restrictions, organized property fraud rings have enlisted corrupt notaries to steal properties. At least 50 public notaries have been collaborating with criminal groups to illegally transfer properties or to forge documents to allow them to be used… Read More

7th April 2021

Former Gunvor employee pleads guilty in Petroecuador bribery case

A Canadian man once employed by the commodities trading house Gunvor Group pleaded guilty on Tuesday to involvement in what U.S. prosecutors called a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to win business from state-controlled oil company Petroecuador. Raymond Kohut, 68, entered his plea to a money laundering conspiracy charge… Read More