[14][15] It also looked at a massive money laundering scheme, the Russian Laundromat, that moved tens of billions of dollars into Europe using offshore companies, fake loans and bribed Moldovan judges.
[16][17] In 2015, working with SVT Swedish Television and the TT News Agency, the OCCRP uncovered that the Swedish/Finnish Telecom giant TeliaSonera (now Telia), Vimpelcom and other phone companies had paid about $1 billion in bribes.
[18] 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, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize Journalism.
[40] Politicians in Sweden and the UK, including anti-corruption chief John Penrose said the leak showed the need for reforms on company creation and registration.
[43] In February 2023, together with The Guardian and other publications, the OCCRP uncovered a vast disinformation campaign codenamed Team Jorge, organized by ex-Israeli special forces operative Tal Hanan, which is alleged to have conducted electoral meddling in more than 30 countries over the course of several years.
[44] In November 2023, the OCCRP joined with more than 40 media partners including Cerosetenta / 070, Vorágine, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) and Distributed Denial of Secrets and journalists in 23 countries and territories for the largest investigative project on organized crime to originate in Latin America, producing the 'NarcoFiles' report.
The investigation was based on more than seven million emails from the Colombian prosecutor’s office which had been hacked by Guacamaya, including correspondence with embassies and authorities around the world.
[49] In November 2023, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper trail media and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the OCCRP and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories[50][51] produced the 'Cyprus Confidential' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin, mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned.
[52][53] Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides[54] and European lawmakers[55] began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours,[54] calling for reforms and launching probes.
[56][57] According to the OCCRP, Vlast, and iStories, Uzbekistan's exports to Russia have increased significantly since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022), including cotton pulp and nitrocellulose.
[58][59] OCCRP has investigated widespread fraud and corruption during COVID-19 relief efforts, exposing the misuse of funds, procurement scandals, and counterfeit medical supplies.
[60] Since 2012, OCCRP has dedicated the Person of the Year Award that "recognizes the individual or institution that has done the most to advance organized criminal activity and corruption in the world".
[95] For example, OCCRP’s 2017 Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation revealed a US$2.9 billion money-laundering operation and slush fund run by Azerbaijan’s ruling elite.
TI rallied public pressure, presented European and national policymakers with evidence of reputation laundering and advocated for an independent investigation into allegations of corruption at the PACE.
[96] OCCRP's stated mission to spread and strengthen investigative journalism around the world and expose crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account.
[98] OCCRP is governed by a board of directors: Marina Gorbis, David Boardman, Anders Alexanderson, Sue Gardner, Sanita Jemberga, Tifani Roberts, Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu.
New member centers were added to the OCCRP Network between 2015 and 2016, including the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), Direkt36 in Hungary, Slidstvo.info in Ukraine, and DOSSIER in Austria.
[125][126] OCCRP and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty[127] journalist Khadija Ismayilova, based in Baku, Azerbaijan was blackmailed by an unknown party with video captured in her bedroom using a camera installed in the wall.
The camera was planted two days after OCCRP/RFERL published a story by Ismayilova about the presidential family in Azerbaijan and how it secretly owned Azerfon, a mobile phone company with a monopoly 3G license.
Ismayilova said that "the evidence shows that the government agencies were involved in the crime and prosecutor’s office fails to act as an independent investigative body".
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty wrote that the charges were "widely viewed as being trumped up in retaliation for her reports linking family members of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to massive business and real estate holdings".
[134] In January 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Azerbaijan government failed to properly investigate a 2012 "sex video" and the subsequent threats of its public disclosure.