Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Abbreviation	OCCRP
Formation	2006
Founder	•  Paul Radu •  Drew Sullivan
Type	International non-governmental organisation
Member of	EXPOSE Network, Russia/Undesirable organization
Sponsored by	Dutch Postcode Lottery, International Center for Journalists, Luminate, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Sigrid Rausing Trust, UK/FCO, US/Department/State, USAID
Integrity Initiative connected group

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) was created by Paul Radu and Drew Sullivan in 2006. It shares an interest in Russian Propaganda with the Integrity Initiative.

Own Description

It is a cross-border network of Eastern European independent media and non-profit organisations, counting the Rise Project and Novaya Gazetta (the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya – the Russian journalist murdered in 2006 for opposing Vladimir Putin – worked for) among its members.

By publishing freely-accessible, groundbreaking investigative articles in English and Russian, the OCCRP hopes to help local populations realise the impact of organised crime and corruption on their lives.

With a resource centre and data visualisations, as well as all the documents used to support the articles freely available, the OCCRP also has something of an educational mission: to inspire people to pursue their own investigations.

Funding

The groups main sponsors are connected to the US deep state, with predictable consequences on its reporting. An investigation by Mediapart (France), Drop Site News (US), Il Fatto Quotidiano (Italy) and Reporters United (Greece), published in 2024, revealed that:

• It is a US military figure and senior civil servant, a retired reserve force colonel who is today attached to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who was behind the first US government funding of the OCCRP;
• The US government still provides about half of the OCCRP’s yearly budget - some comes from the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs;
• The US government has the right to veto “key personnel” within the OCCRP;
• The OCCRP is not able to use US funds to investigate US interests, while some of those funds are given specifically for investigations into countries that are regarded by Washington as enemies.

The German NDR is said to have removed itself from the investigation last minute and is not publishing it's findings, possibly after having been pressured by the OCCRP.

Activities

The group's activities overlap with those of the Integrity Initiative. It publishes its stories through local media and in English and Russian through its website.

Panama Papers

Full article: Panama Papers

OCCRP worked on the Panama Papers project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Süddeutsche Zeitung producing more than 40 stories on corruption through the use of offshore entities, where the focus f.ex. was on "how friends close to" Russian President Vladimir Putin were receiving large sums of money through offshore companies, but conspicuously few revelations of US activities.

Azerbaijani Laundromat

Full article: Azerbaijani laundromat

Russian Laundromat

Full article: Russian Laundromat

The group's looked at an massive money laundering scheme, the Russian Laundromat, that allegedly moved tens of billions of dollars into Europe using offshore companies, fake loans and bribed Moldovan judges.

"Person of the Year Award"

Since 2012, OCCRP has dedicated a "Person of the Year Award" that "recognises the individual or institution that has done the most to advance organised criminal activity and corruption in the world", and decidedly has a tilt against Western official enemies -Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Nicolas Maduro, Rodrigo Duterte et al.

 

Sponsors

Event	Description
Dutch Postcode Lottery
International Center for Journalists	US government funded organization to promote and finance a network of reliable journalists worldwide.
Luminate	Pierre Omidyar's foundation for financing global media and civil society groups. It is unknown how close it coordinates with certain deep state US government agencies.
Open Society Foundations	A NGO operating in more countries than McDonald's. It has the tendency to support politicians (at times through astroturfing) and activists that get branded as "extreme left" as its founder is billionaire and bane of the pound George Soros. This polarizing perspective causes the abnormal influence of the OSF to go somewhat unanswered.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund	Rockefeller family "philanthropic" fund. One of the CIA's favorite cut-outs during the Cold War.
Sigrid Rausing Trust
UK/FCO	The UK government department dealing with foreign policy.
US/Department/State	Set up in 1789, the US State Department is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministry of other countries.
USAID	US govt organization to provide "international development", including funding of Ecohealth Alliance. Called "CIA's little sister".

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.