Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)

What Is OCCRP?

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a non-profit investigative journalism network. It is concerned with issues like organized crime, corruption, money laundering, and other illegal financial activities that transcend borders. Regulatory responses to known wrongdoing are usually caught on sanctions lists or court documents, but OCCRP investigations often uncover new risks before they become apparent. This provides compliance teams with a solid source of negative news.

The OCCRP was founded by Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu and officially launched in 2007 after several years of collaborative investigative reporting. Since its inception, OCCRP has grown into a global network of journalists and investigative organizations that collaborate on complex corruption and illicit finance investigations. 

Based in Amsterdam, OCCRP combines investigative journalism with data infrastructure, journalist training, and technology to support international investigations. This collaborative approach enables reporters to link financial crimes across various jurisdictions that might otherwise remain disconnected.

How OCCRP Investigative Reporting Works

OCCRP operates on a “follow-the-money” principle, which involves tracking where assets, ownership, and money are transferred across jurisdictions. It basically means that the process of tracing ownership is done with deep analysis of the many layers of shell companies, leaked information, public records, and the strict verification of every claim prior to publication. The member centers work together by sharing resources, security resources, and legal support, and a lead discovered by one reporter can be investigated by other reporters in separate jurisdictions.

Aleph is the backbone of this work, the investigative data platform of OCCRP. It consolidates billions of records from corporate registries, court filings, sanctions lists, leaked data, and more from public sources into a searchable database. Reporters use Aleph to trace beneficial ownership, link people with companies, find hidden connections, and discover cross-border financial crimes. The platform is designed for journalists, but it uses many of the same data sources and analytical techniques as enhanced due diligence.

Notable OCCRP Reports on Financial Crime Investigations

An OCCRP report has repeatedly shaped regulators’ and the public’s understanding of illicit finance. Suisse Secrets revealed that Credit Suisse had accounts for sanctioned persons and convicted criminals. The Pandora Papers revealed offshore entities that political elites created to hide behind and hide beneficial ownership. Since 2022, the Russian Asset Tracker has been tracking yachts, aircraft, and property owned or registered by sanctioned oligarchs. The 2025 Scam Empire investigation uncovered a global investment fraud scheme run out of Israel, Eastern Europe, and Georgia that involved almost two terabytes of stolen call center information.

OCCRP reports that its investigations have led to resignations of government officials, criminal indictments, asset recovery, and regulatory action around the world. As these figures change over time, they should be verified against OCCRP’s official impact reports before publication.

Why Financial Crime Investigations Depend on Networks Like OCCRP

Illicit financial activity often spans multiple jurisdictions. For example, a bribe paid in one country can lead to the establishment of a shell company in another and, eventually, to a property purchase in yet another. This cross-border nature of financial crime highlights the importance of investigative reporting, which serves as a valuable source of intelligence alongside regulatory enforcement efforts. As a result, sanctions authorities, tax agencies, and compliance teams frequently cite OCCRP reporting as adverse media evidence when evaluating a customer or counterparty’s true risk exposure.

FATF guidance encourages financial institutions to consider reliable public information when assessing customer risk and conducting ongoing monitoring. Investigative journalism from reputable organizations like OCCRP can reveal early signs of corruption, sanctions evasion, fraud, or concerns about beneficial ownership, often before any formal regulatory actions are taken.

Why OCCRP Reporting Matters for AML Screening

Identifying relevant investigative reports across thousands of global news sources is one of the biggest operational challenges for compliance teams. Keeping track of these developments across thousands of global news sources can be quite challenging without manual research. AML Watcher’s adverse media screening helps financial institutions pinpoint relevant investigative reports alongside sanctions and PEP screening. This allows analysts to incorporate emerging risk indicators into customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring.

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