View this email in your browser ([link removed])
[link removed]

January 31, 2025

Greetings From Amsterdam,

This week, we’re taking a deep dive into our latest investigation in the Cyprus Confidential project: how one Russian oligarch’s fleet of yachts were misrepresented as commercial vessels in an effort to evade taxes. We’ll go behind the scenes to show how reporters pieced together this investigation from a trove of 3.6 million leaked documents.

Plus, organized criminals’ close links to Serbia’s ruling party — and how mass demonstrations led to leadership changes in Belgrade this week; insights into how Belarus continues to funnel Western supplies to Russia and profit heavily, despite sanctions; and the sentencing of a scammer who reaped U.S. tax dollars in the name of low-income children.


** New Investigation
------------------------------------------------------------


** Billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Company Set Up Fake Superyacht Chartering Scheme in Apparent Attempt to Evade Millions in Taxes
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

In the 2000s and early 2010s, corporate clients frequently chartered Roman Abramovich’s collection of luxury superyachts: Ecstasea, Le Grand Bleu, Pelorus, Luna, and Eclipse — then the world’s longest yacht, featuring two helipads and a swimming pool that converts into a dancefloor. At least, that was the illusion that a complicated chain of leasing arrangements, contracts, and log sheets created. In reality, the Russian billionaire indirectly owned the chartering companies in the British Virgin Islands. Abramovich was essentially leasing his luxury vessels to himself.

Leaked emails from people working for Abramovich reveal that this elaborate scheme was put in place to deceive tax inspectors. Registering the yachts as commercial vessels and manufacturing commercial charter agreements meant the boats’ many expenses — from fuel and port fees to staff and maintenance — were exempt from European value added tax.

The latest installment in our Cyprus Confidential ([link removed]) series saw OCCRP collaborate with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC to piece together the records.

The leaked material shows that beginning in 2005, companies Abramovich ultimately owned through trusts were leasing and subleasing the vessels to one another. Trusts are arrangements that allow an asset to be managed by one person for the benefit of another — often because they are underage or incapacitated, but sometimes for the sake of secrecy.

The details of how this was done were previously hidden, since even the existence of Abramovich’s trusts was not a matter of public record.

In leaked emails, individuals working for the benefit of Abramovich discuss the yachts’ “customers” in quotation marks, ask if evidence of “the owner using the boat” could lead authorities to demand taxes, and envisage retroactively creating leasing contracts.

“Our structure must as clearly as possible separate the different parties so that an investigator checking on our operation would see it as a legitimate structure,” one individual involved in the scheme wrote in an email in 2005. “But we all have to recognise that a determined investigator could eventually discover this is an in-house structure with the possible consequences that would entail.”

A former crew member on Eclipse told reporters that “at no point was it a charter yacht.”

Abramovich’s lawyers deny any involvement or wrongdoing by him. None of the leaked emails reviewed by OCCRP include correspondence to or from Abramovich himself — but they frequently refer to the billionaire.

In 2010, the Cyprus tax authority began a probe into the scheme. Two years later, officials ordered a company involved in the sham to pay roughly $18.5 million to cover the unpaid tax. The company unsuccessfully appealed the tax bill and later dissolved. It’s unclear if the bill was settled.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** Unpacking A Leak
------------------------------------------------------------

Cyprus Confidential is based on a leak of 3.6 million documents from Cypriot corporate service providers. Within it were legal and company documents, including trust deeds and settlements, said OCCRP senior investigative journalist Tom Stocks. They laid out the legal setup behind assets — such as who runs trusts and who benefits from them.

When a leak comes in, the data is in a range of file types, including PDF and CSV. It’s often “messy,” Stocks said. So a team of data journalists will clean and organize it, putting it into a consistent format and adding the files to the OCCRP database Aleph ([link removed]) so that it becomes searchable by reporters.

From there, a reporter might search for a specific oligarch or business leader they’re interested in, or dig into a theme or geographical area. Because Aleph contains vast datasets from public records, leaks, court records, and more, reporters can cross-reference names and information in a specific leak against existing data. This can quickly reveal the number of names in a leak that potentially match those on sanctions lists, for instance. Reporters can then sift through the data and records to confirm the matches.

Reporting on a leak then becomes a long process of reading and making sense of files. In this most recent investigation on Abramovich, OCCRP reporters collaborated with journalists in the U.K. and Germany — and the majority of the findings came directly from the leaked files, said Stocks.

“We have automation to help us to some extent, but when you’re reporting on something contentious you still really have to read every document and read every email in case you might miss something,” he said. “In this line of work, being organized is the most important quality, because you need to find stuff later — especially during the fact check.”

Stocks has a straightforward yet laborious process: As he goes through the data, he makes notes on the important details he spots in each document, using a Google Document or spreadsheet, with page references and links to the original file. He’ll later use this to search for keywords, such as names of vessels, to piece together the reporting and fact check it.

Once reporters had sifted through the leaked evidence, they began interviewing sources to substantiate the findings, from experts in tax and offshore structures to a former superyacht crew member.

Leaks like this provide unprecedented insight into systems and how they work, said Stocks.

“You basically get a first-person view of someone’s emails and the documents that they’re using to create all of these structures. It’s only with these big leaks of data that you’re able to uncover a lot of this stuff that goes on in the background, and it’s probably only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Explore more from the Cyprus Confidential project ([link removed]) , a global collaboration on how Cypriot firms helped Russian oligarchs and billionaires organize and hide their wealth — led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Paper Trail Media. Highlights include how Abramovich acquired the economic rights to young football players ([link removed]) through “modern slavery” deals, and how he kept his $1 billion art collection safe from sanctions ([link removed]) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
[link removed]


** Reporting From Serbia
------------------------------------------------------------


** Students Topple Serbia’s Government
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević stepped down on Tuesday ([link removed]) in response to mounting student protests over the deadly November collapse of a railway station roof in the northern city of Novi Sad.

Quiet vigils turned to daily 15-minute traffic blockades leading up to 12:07 p.m. — the time at which the canopy collapsed — to honor each life. Demonstrators accused Serbian authorities of negligence and corruption, alleging the collapse was due to rushed repairs, and called for full documentation of the reconstruction as well as a transparent investigation. Novi Sad’s public prosecutor filed charges against 13 officials involved in the construction, including Transport Minister Goran Vesić.

On Monday, the demonstrations intensified as tens of thousands of protesters created a 24-hour blockade of Belgrade’s main traffic loop, among other major streets and city squares. President Aleksandar Vučić condemned the protests that evening and announced government reforms. Prime Minister Vučević and his entire cabinet then resigned in an effort to take political responsibility and quell the crisis — but demonstrations carried on.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** Encrypted Chats Expose Rival Factions Around Serbia’s Ruling Party
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

As he orchestrated international cocaine shipments, a member of a Serbian organized crime group was also getting internal updates on the country’s ruling party — and striking deals with a businessman in its inner circle ([link removed]) .

Reporters from OCCRP’s Serbian member center KRIK obtained a police report from an investigation into Balkan organized crime, as well as encrypted text messages that reveal the links between convicted trafficker Miloš Pandrc and Serbia’s economic and political elite. The messages were sent over Sky ECC, an app developed by a Canadian company that was used and distributed by criminals worldwide ([link removed]) .

The records suggest that Pandrc could have made an 800,000-euro deal with Elektromontaža, a company handling lucrative state energy projects that was purchased by Dragoljub Zbiljić, a businessman close to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Zbiljić also shared screenshots with Pandrc of texts between himself and Miloš Vučević, who at the time of the messages in 2020 was mayor of Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city. Vučević then rose to become Serbia’s prime minister in 2024; he resigned on Tuesday amid mass protests against corruption.

At the same time, Pandrc was also coordinating shipments of cocaine from Brazil to Germany, according to the police report and Sky ECC communications.

The police report and messages reveal that the Elektromontaža deal caused friction with a rival group, which included businessmen and a criminal convicted of drug charges.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
You can also explore more of OCCRP’s Crime Messenger investigation ([link removed]) , unpacking a leak of 3,800 files that reveal the inner workings of Sky ECC.


** More OCCRP News
------------------------------------------------------------


** Kenyan Police Under Fire in Court Cases About Abductions
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

At a court hearing on Thursday, Kenya’s inspector general of police Douglas Kanja attempted to reassure civilians “that they are safe.” ([link removed]) He was addressing a trial brought by human rights groups against Kenya’s National Police Service over the country’s recent epidemic of abductions.

Kanja said he was unable to provide information to the court about the three abductees on which the case centers.

But the bodies of two of the missing men had in fact been found at the city mortuary, reporters learned — potentially contradicting the idea that police had no information.

The three men are among at least 82 people who have been kidnapped since anti-government protests erupted in June. Kenya’s Human Rights Commission says the number is likely three times that. Court testimony and victim interviews indicate that abductees are often forced into a white car with fake number plates by three or four men in hoods. The disappearances appear to target those critical of the government.

Police have repeatedly denied involvement. Kenya’s Independent Police Oversight Authority has said it cannot launch an investigation because the police has implicated none of its officers in the disappearances. The case heard Thursday is one of at least three court cases surrounding the slew of abductions nationwide.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** Syrian Intelligence Files Offer Clues in Case of Abducted American Reporter
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Just over a month after Washington Post reporter Austin Tice was detained in 2012 by Syrian intelligence on his way from a Damascus suburb to Lebanon, his family received a video clip of him with a group of armed men. The 43-second video was titled “Austin Tice is Alive.”

That was the last information the family received from Tice’s captors. But now, intelligence files found by reporters ([link removed]) after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8 offer new clues about his fate.

The records discovered by Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), a collective of journalists that partners with OCCRP, show how Assad’s regime tracked reporters who had entered the country to cover the nearly 14-year civil war. Entries include details of correspondents from the Sunday Times, BBC, CNN, Spain’s El Pais, and France’s Le Monde. While at least one entry notes a reporter’s death, the entry on Tice focuses on his movements and meetings — keeping hope alive for his family, who continue to seek details about his whereabouts.

Assad’s regime and affiliates killed at least 181 media professionals since 2011, according to advocacy group Reporters sans frontières, while another 23 remained in prison upon the regime’s fall and another seven were missing.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** Belarus’s Integral Bypasses Sanctions, Fuels Russian War Effort
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and E.U. sanctioned Belarus for its support of the assault. But that hasn’t stopped Belarus’ state-owned company Integral from acquiring ([link removed]) European and American components essential for making microchips — and supplying the resulting products to Russia.

An investigation by the Belarus Investigative Center based on leaked emails and internal documents from Russian state-owned Ruselectronics reveals an intricate network of intermediaries in Poland, Turkey, and Kazakhstan that have supplied the precious components to Integral while avoiding detection.

Integral has supplied over six million microchips, worth $130 million, to Russia between March 2022 and June 2024. Some Russian missiles used against Ukraine are known to have contained Integral-manufactured microchips. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Integral itself in February 2022, but these don’t appear to have impaired the company, which saw profits increase fortyfold from 2021 to 2023. The E.U. has not sanctioned the company.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** US: Feeding Our Future Defendant Gets 17.5 Years for $250 Million Scam
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

One of roughly 60 conspirators who helped defraud the U.S. government of a quarter of a billion dollars in COVID-19 relief funds was handed a lengthy prison sentence last week ([link removed]) .

The illicit venture took advantage of the Feeding Our Future program, which sponsors could enroll in to fund meals for low-income children. After the sponsors had declared meal counts to the government, it would reimburse their costs. Sponsors could retain 10 to 15 percent of the funds as administrative compensation.

Thirty-four-year-old Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, the then-CEO of Afrique Hospitality Group, was among more than 60 people who allegedly got greedy with the program, filing fraudulent meal count sheets that allowed them to vastly overcharge the government. Authorities estimate that across the scheme, some 125 million fake meals were submitted for reimbursement, costing taxpayers $250 million.

Shariff was convicted for his part on fraud and money laundering charges in June 2024. He has now been sentenced to more than 17 years behind bars for his involvement in what the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota deemed “a brazen fraud.”


** Read the full story ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

We’ll be back in your inbox next week.
[link removed]
P.S. Thanks for reading OCCRP Weekly. Feel free to reply to this email with feedback, thoughts, or questions.

============================================================
Copyright © 2025 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, All rights reserved.
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
** ([link removed])