Supported projects

BRUSSELS - It is everywhere, yet invisible. Hawala, an ancient, trust-based money transfer system, moves vast sums of cash around the world every day, leaving almost no trace. No banks. No paper trail. Just a handshake and a code.

BRUSSELS - A maze of European subsidy rules has created a lucrative niche: grant consultants. These consultancy firms earn substantial sums by assisting researchers with their subsidy applications. This raises a fundamental question: does current research policy steer science too much towards ...

BRUSSELS - The surge of the far right in the European Parliament is reshaping climate politics. This investigation reveals how these parties are collaborating with mainstream allies to undermine environmental protections and delay green reforms throughout the EU.

VILNIUS – This cross-border investigation has revealed that Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank and a target of comprehensive US, UK and EU sanctions, has bypassed trade restrictions by setting up a secret import network to supply Russian consumers with products from Western brands such as ...

ROME – Over 300,000 people have subscribed to an Eni bond advertised as "green," including by major Italian media outlets. They may have contributed, without knowing it, to global warming.

PARIS / LONDON / STOCKHOLM – This investigation reveals how European countries have been spending the “climate finance” that they have pledged to help developing countries tackle climate change.

SZEKLERLAND -  While most municipalities in the region face problems including a lack of infrastructure, one municipality has seen millions of euros invested in recent years.

OXFORD – Fuelling academia: OpenDemocracy and Investigate Europe find that Europe’s leading universities have received at least €260 million from fossil fuel giants and taken advice on degree curricullae.

GHEORGHENI - Nine four-star hotels are being built in the Hungarian region of Romania. The Hungarian government is funding this project with public money. In total, Hungarian taxpayers have generously subsidised the construction of the nine hotels, two of which are set to open in the Mureș district ...

IMPERATRIZ - in Brazil, companies with long legacies of environmental destruction and human rights abuses are attracting large amounts of finance from European investors, some of it in the form of green finance - the fastest growing financial sector in the world.

BRUSSELS - Hundreds of thousands of evictions and people enchained to debt, while financial actors in tax havens as well as EU countries profit from a system that originally was created to stabilize banks. This is the result of an official EU policy on so called non-performing loans, that was ...

ERBIL / ISTANBUL / ATHENS - The increased complexity and dangers of migration routes to Europe, including the risk of being swindled by traffickers or robbed by security forces, have led to an increased reliance on an informal banking system based on the traditional money transfer system of 'hawala' ...

YEREVAN - Since 2017, nearly 100 Armenian citizens have served as proxy directors for a network of companies that have been used by prominent Eastern European oligarchs to move millions of dollars, shift assets from shuttered banks abroad, and pay for lobbying services in the United States.

BRATISLAVA - A couple from Slovakia imported hundreds of frogs from Central America to the EU, completely legally. However, the woman was later apprehended in Germany, where police seized over 100 frogs from her. Some of them of the kind which was never in history imported to Europe legally. Turns ...

LOME - Investigative journalists Andrew Weir and Nicolas Vescovacci reveal the networks of influence and finance that built up the logistics empire of Vincent Bolloré and made him the target of official investigations into alleged corruption in Africa.

NAYPYIDAW - This is a story that describes the downfall of the financial sector of Myanmar after the military coup in February 2021. Due to a history of nationalisations and demonetisations, people and businesses lost trust in the banks immediately after the coup. That resulted in a bankrun.

MAPUTO - The promise of transformative wealth from natural gas has seduced Mozambicans for more than a decade. But as the projects led by TotalEnergies and Eni have started construction, revenues to the country look likely to fall significantly short of expectations.

BRUSSELS - Journalists at Knack, LeVif and RTBF have joined forces to investigate the peculiar financial management of the non-profit organisation Poverello. They greedily buy real estate that often remains empty. The organisation appears to be very rich, but hardly ever uses its money for working ...

EL ZONTE - El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency: "One thing is certain: it is here to stay."

LONDON - After the 2008 crash, a few Wall Street investors cracked the code for how to turn cut-price homes into a tradeable asset class worth billions. By 2021, the template they created is being adapted by diverse financial actors, ranging from private equity giants to PropTech apps.

THE HAGUE - The Netherlands is an important financial centre behind the international arms trade. Research from The Investigative Desk (the Netherlands) and an Indian news outlet shows how some of the biggest arms companies in the world use the Netherlands as an intermediary to wire profits to tax ...

DAMASCUS - The Syrian government has raised billions of Syrian pounds to rebuild war-stricken cities through a "reconstruction tax." But where does the money really go? A joint investigation by OCCRP, SIRAJ, and Finance Uncovered, supported by Journalismfund's Money Trail grant programme.

AMSTERDAM / BRUSSELS - In February 2021 a Dutch and a Belgian newspaper included a 16 page supplement about the Money Trail project. The booklet featured four full Money Trail stories, plus a 'Stories behind the Stories' section, which revealed how the journalists went about to do their research and ...

LILONGWE - Taxation treaties that Malawi signed with other countries over the last fifty years are costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars, since they have opened up opportunities for multinational corporations to reduce their tax liability through tax avoidance.

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 ...

ANTWERP - Karl van den Broeck, who succeeded Georges Timmerman as editor-in-chief of Apache in 2014, tells in a six-part series how the top man of De Persgroep (now DPG Media) committed a sophisticated stealth murder on Flanders' most important independent progressive newspaper De Morgen. 

BRUSSELS - A lot goes wrong with our tax collection. There are so many loopholes that the tax authorities collect a lot less than what the state is entitled to. This is one of the reasons why the government has to borrow and why we have a large national debt.

ABUJA / BERLIN - In the 1970s, Nigerian students founded a fraternity to combat oppression and racism. Today, however, their name is associated with criminal activities worldwide. What happened?

BUSIA, UGANDA - This story shows how the lapse in the law coupled by porous border points and tax difference is fuelling cross-border beer smuggling between Uganda and Kenya.

It depicts the colossal sums of revenues lost due to the illicit alcohol trade that is thriving between Busia, and Malaba ...

MUMBAI - This story focuses on the suicide epidemic of Indian farmers related to over-indebtedness. For the first time the names of the lenders and their donors involved in the farmers' suicides due to overindebeteness are uncovered.