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Stolen at sea: illegal Chinese transshipment activities in Ghana and Nigeria

  • Corruption
  • Environment
  • Fishing industry

ACCRA, ABUJA – This investigation exposes a hidden network of Chinese control and ownership of many industrial fishing vessels operating in Ghanaian and Nigerian waters in contravention of local laws.

Big Tobacco, Small Tax Bill

  • Economy
  • Finance
  • Industry

AMSTERDAM - While the Covid recovery is increasing pressure on public finances and raising the prospect of tax increases, this new research from The Investigative Desk with support from the University of Bath shows, for the first time on this scale, which tax avoidance methods the world’s four largest publicly traded tobacco companies are using to minimise their tax bill. 

Cigarettes

Turkish Citizenship for Syrians for Sale

  • Corruption
  • Migration

This investigation blows the whistle on the phenomenon of brokers who, with the complicity of Turkish civil servants, help to move forward the citizenship applications of Syrians in return for bribes. On the other hand, more than five thousand Syrians’ files remained pending until they got cancelled without any valid reason.

Helicopter Money

  • Corruption

An Indonesian state-owned aircraft manufacturer allegedly paid more than 10 million euro in kickbacks to dozens of high-ranked politicians and army officials. The company disguised the payments as a ‘marketing fee’, using fictitious partners.

Tajikistan, ‘House of Water,’ where half the population lacks access to water

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Environment

Despite its water abundance and the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in improving Tajikistan’s water access and supply, millions of Tajik residents still struggle to access running water, let alone clean water.

European fish fraud in Namibia

  • Corruption
  • Fishing industry
  • Tax evasion

A Dutch fishing giant is involved in a corruption affair and tax evasion scheme concerning fishing quotas in Namibia. The money trail goes via Poland and Iceland.

The Frenchman who sold timber from Ghana

  • Tax evasion

ACCRA, PARIS - A French official got into wood exportation without paying any taxes on this commercial activity. Despite his presence in the Panama Papers he was awarded the French Order of Merit.

Jean-Louis Chanel

SOS Chrétiens d’Orient in Syria: The far-right French NGO supporting Bashar al-Assad

  • Armed conflict
  • Politics
  • Religion

French humanitarian NGO SOS Chrétiens d’Orient (SOSCO) claims to support persecuted Christians in Syria and the wider Middle East without interfering in conflicts or local politics. But in reality, the seven-year-old NGO—which was founded by far-right, conservative, Catholic activists— thinly veils its agenda to amplify Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s propaganda and push for a normalisation of diplomatic relationships between Damascus and EU countries.

Inside Zimbabwe's illicit gold-mining trade

  • Armed conflict
  • Corruption
  • Environment
  • Finance

HARARE - Gold is Zimbabwe's chief export product. However, partly because of the country's monetary policy, an estimate of 50% of artisanal and small-scale mined gold in Zimbabwe is lost to smuggling, causing bloody turf wars that have claimed hundreds of lives.

Young miner in Zimbabwe shows mercury coated gold

A Betting Nation

  • Corruption
  • Finance
  • Sport
  • Tax evasion

NAIROBI - The three legs of this investigation reveal:

  1. Kenya's enormous betting addiction;
  2. At the same time the Kenyan government removed a tax for betting companies, a cousin of Kenya's president accumulated a financial stake in betting giant SportPesa;
  3. SportPesa has been sucking profits out of its lucrative Kenyan business by paying millions of pounds to a software company it owns in the UK.