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Russian Cybercrime Pro is Back to Russia Amid Europe’s Strike at Cybercrime

Russian cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik returns to Moscow after a prisoner swap with the U.S., while Europol targets a major ransomware network, arresting four Russians and seizing key servers.

Russian cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik arrived in Moscow after being released by the U.S. as part of a prisoner swap, Russian media reported Friday.

Vinnik, accused of masterminding a $9 billion cryptocurrency laundering scheme, was freed in exchange for U.S. teacher Marc Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since 2021 for possession of medical cannabis.

As he made his way from the airport to meet his family, Vinnik thanked those who made his return possible, particularly Russian President Vladimir Putin, who helped broker the deal with the administration of the U.S. President Donald Trump.

Vinnik, once a key operator of the infamous BTC-e exchange, pleaded guilty in May 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering. From 2011 to 2017, BTC-e was one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, handling more than $9 billion in transactions and serving over a million users worldwide, including many in the U.S.

While the U.S. secured Vinnik’s release, European authorities intensified their efforts to take down other Russian cybercriminals. 

In a separate operation, law enforcement from 14 countries arrested four Russian nationals linked to the Phobos ransomware, which has been used to extort payments from businesses across Europe and beyond. Europol, which coordinated the operation, stated that authorities seized 27 servers tied to the criminal network.

Phobos, first detected in 2018, is notorious for targeting medium-sized businesses with weak cybersecurity defenses. Unlike cybercriminal groups that focus on major corporations, Phobos operators cast a wider net, attacking smaller firms to maximize their reach.

Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) has been leading efforts to disrupt Phobos and other ransomware groups like 8Base since 2019. The latest operation builds on previous successes, including the arrest and extradition of a Phobos administrator from South Korea in 2024 and the capture of an affiliate in Italy in 2023. Authorities also warned 400 companies about the threat of imminent ransomware attacks.

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Kazakh billionaire reportedly in talks on making $1B payout to state

The billionaire son-in-law of former Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is reportedly in talks to pay about $1 billion to the state in connection with a government probe. 

Bloomberg has reported that Timur Kulibayev, a former top energy sector official married to Nazarbayev’s second daughter Dinara, is negotiating a deal that is part of an investigation into wealth accumulated during his father-in-law’s rule. 

Under such an agreement, Kulibayev would make a combination of payments and investments, Bloomberg said, quoting two unnamed sources. The deal would not include any admission of wrongdoing, Bloomberg said.

Separately, the online media publication Orda.kz quoted a source saying the $1 billion payout could include investments in two oil services firms.  

Kulibayev, whose fortune along with his wife’s is estimated at more than $10 billion, according to Forbes, declined to comment through his lawyers. He held several high-level government posts during his father-in-law’s rule of oil-rich Kazakhstan, which ended in 2019 after nearly 30 years. Kulibayev and his wife are majority owners of Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender.

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Komi Daily Becomes First Media Tagged ‘Terrorist’ in Russia

Russia targets Komi Daily as a “terrorist organization,” citing alleged separatist links amid growing media suppression.

Komi Daily, an independent regional media outlet focused on the Komi Republic in northeastern European Russia, has become the first media platform to be declared a “terrorist organization” by the Russian Federation.

The online news platform, which highlights the region’s traditions, culture, history, and language, announced the designation on Saturday via its Telegram channel, just two days after publishing an article on local wedding customs.

The Russian Supreme Court’s decision prompted the Federal Security Service (FSB) to add Komi Daily to its list of terrorist organizations. Authorities allege ties between the outlet and the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, a group advocating the dissolution of the Russian Federation into 41 autonomous states.

Komi Daily denies any connection to the forum, although it has been listed as one of 172 entities or “structural divisions” associated with the movement. 

In November 2024, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation designated the forum a terrorist organization. Previously, in March 2023, the forum had been declared an “undesirable organization.”

Komi Daily, whose website has reportedly been blocked in Russia, also advocates for the autonomy of the Komi, suggesting that the region’s income derived from natural resources should stay in Komi. The outlet last year also published a statement criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Amnesty International has warned last year about an increasing misuse of anti-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation in Russia, particularly since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“The [anti-terrorism and anti-extremism] laws, vague in their wording and arbitrary in their application, are used to silence voices of opposition and instill fear among those who dare to speak out,” according to Oleg Kozlovsky, Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher.

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Oleg Krot, yet another shady criminal ‘IT tycoon’ with Russian ties

For many Ukrainian businessmen with ambiguous biographies, the war has become an opportunity to masquerade as outstanding volunteers, fighters for the freedom of our state, and fervent patriots.

A similar situation occurred in 2014 when blatant criminals and corrupt individuals donned embroidered shirts to steal with even greater force. Since then, little has changed. Except that some figures disappear without a trace, only to be replaced by new ones.

Oleg Krot is a typical example of a personality who, amidst the noise of war, tries to create the image of an outstanding patriot of Ukraine. Of course, he does not do this without a reason.

In our material, you will learn what Oleg Krot is known for and what he is trying to hide behind the guise of an outstanding volunteer.

Oleg Krot, The “hyped” IT specialist

Oleg Krot is a fairly successful businessman in the field of computer technology. According to information from open sources, he is the owner and beneficiary of 14 different legal entities. Essentially, all of these companies work in the IT technology sphere, except for two enterprises whose main profile is property leasing and wholesale trade. Krot is also the founder of three public organizations. The most publicized among Krot’s NGOs is the “Techenie” Foundation.

TECHIIA foundation and the massive PR budget

As for the ‘Techenie’ Foundation (also often written as ‘TECHIIA’), this public initiative became known not for any outstanding actions of its own but due to massive PR campaigns for which Krot spares no expense. The entrepreneur actively began promoting his assistance starting from November 2022, but by May 2023, he abruptly stopped purchasing advertising materials about his volunteer activities. Over these six months, we were able to count approximately 100 different commissioned materials related to Krot.

Examples of advertising materials about the ‘Techenie’ Foundation.

The average price for placing such an advertising post is around $500. So, let’s do some simple math: Krot spent $500,000 on his PR. Wouldn’t it have been better to use these funds for additional assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine?

In reality, Krot gained widespread popularity three months before launching his massive advertising campaign for assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In August of last year, the well-known Ukrainian singer and actress Dasha Astafyeva posted a video with Krot and wrote that he had donated $60 million to the Ukrainian Defenders. A staggering amount. None of the Ukrainian patrons have reached such significant figures, but Krot managed to do so.

Krot donated 60 millon USD for AFU. Or did he?

The TECHIIA holding, on which Krot’s public initiative is based, is estimated by Forbes at $300 million. However, this is only a nominal evaluation. The actual value of the corporation is unknown. Nevertheless, Krot himself claimed that the company’s worth is $800 million. Objectively, this valuation is three times inflated. Oleg Krot has never been listed by Forbes, and he has never been recognized as a Ukrainian multimillionaire. Therefore, we doubt that he actually possesses such a sum of money. Later, however, the truth became evident: in an interview, Krot couldn’t explain where those $60 million were spent. It seems that Dasha Astafyeva, like the media promoting Krot’s NGO, simply provided advertising either for money or due to her friendly relationship with the entrepreneur.

In one of his interviews, Krot even began to claim that he “estimated his time spent supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces” in that amount. It’s interesting to consider how the heroes in the trenches would evaluate their own time.

He does have significant money, though. We do not dispute this fact, but where does it come from?

Russian connections of Oleg Krot

Oleg Krot’s corporation, TECHIIA, specializes in the gaming industry. It should be noted that in this business, one step leads to the organization of online casinos and bookmaking companies. And that’s precisely the step Krot took.

In addition to organizing various esports tournaments, his company also collaborated with the Russian company 1xBet. Currently, according to the Decree of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, it is under sanctions and prohibited in Ukraine. However, that’s the current situation. Before the full-scale invasion, the Russian bookmaker operated in Ukraine, albeit illegally due to internet advertising.

However, after the adoption of legislation providing for the legalization of bookmaking companies, lotteries, and casinos (in the broad sense of the word), 1xBet obtained a license in Ukraine and developed gambling activities in our country. Even after the start of the full-scale invasion, they did not change their operations, regardless of their Russian roots. Krot actively supported the registration process of LLC “Your Betting Company” and obtaining permission to conduct gambling activities in Ukraine.

By the way, in his interviews, he doesn’t hide his connection with 1xBet. However, as Krot notes, they are “good Russians” who could contribute substantial tax revenue to the budget. Meanwhile, 1xBet continued to operate in Russia and Belarus. The company only recently encountered problems. Initially, Russian police exposed the company for illegal activities, and according to their estimates, 1xBet unlawfully obtained 63 billion rubles (approximately $800 million). Later, the bookmaker started cheating its customers. It reached a point where VIP players couldn’t collect their winnings in amounts ranging from 2 to 10 million dollars. Today, it seems that the story of the Russian company may come to an end, as one of the owners of the company, Sergey Karshkov, suddenly passed away in Switzerland.

Oleg Krot embezzles Brazilian businessman De Souza Fuziama Carlos Jose

The most unexpectedly information about Krot’s activities appeared in Latin American media in May of this year.

Brazilian individual, De Souza Fuziama Carlos Jose, claimed that Oleg Krot and his business partner from TECHIIA Holdings, Yuri Lazebnikov, swindled him out of $35 million.

According to the information disclosed by Carlos Jose, the founders of TECHIIA met with him and proposed financing the establishment of a hotel with a casino from the Russian company 1xBet in the centre of Kyiv. Investments of $35 million were required, and Jose apparently provided these funds. However, the partners disappeared afterward. Interestingly, in 2017, casinos were prohibited in Ukraine and were only legalized in 2020.

It is difficult to assess the truthfulness of the story by the Brazilian investor at the moment, but it is confirmed that Carlos Jose indeed had close contacts with Krot.

It is worth noting that Carlos Jose was the owner of a mining center in Kropyvnytskyi since 2019. As he claimed, his investment in the company amounted to approximately $100 million. Prior to the full-scale invasion by Russia, law enforcement authorities suspected the crypto investor of large-scale fraud, and searches were conducted at Carlos Jose’s enterprise. It was then established that he was working together with the founders of TECHIIA Holdings.

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Amidst the general uncertainty of the future, Jose managed to close all his companies in Ukraine and leave to avoid potential problems with law enforcement.

There is clear criminal evidence linking IT entrepreneur Oleg Krot to these cases, but this is just the beginning of our investigation into the illegal activities of this “shady” businessman.

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The Buro: Owners of EU Microprocessor Plant Shipped Chips to Russia Despite Sanctions

Businessmen that own a plant in Latvia shipped microchips used to build drones to Russia despite Western sanctions in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

When Russian troops poured over the border with Ukraine in early 2022, SMD Baltic, a Latvia-based microchip firm with a plant in the city of Daugavpils, publicly condemned the invasion and stated that it would no longer take orders from Russian or Belarussian firms. 

But in fact its Belarussian owners, Siarhei Khvalko, Maksim Bohush, Siarhei Sayavets, and Latvian citizen Dmitrijs Radkevičs, reportedly continued to export Western-made chips to Russia using a secretive network of companies, according to The Buro’s most recent investigation.

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, the SMD Baltic plant shipped around half of its products, which included microchips and was worth almost $1.2 million in 2021, to a single Russian firm called Novaya Elektronnaya Kompaniya (NEK) and owned by the same three Belarusian businessmen.

By the time the EU and U.S. banned the sale of microchips to Russia in late 2022, NEK had devised new supply chains through Kazakhstan, Turkey, and China. The Russian firm imported $1.3 million worth of electronic components into Russia in 2023, among them chips made by U.S. firms — therefore subject to U.S. sanctions — Intel, Texas Instruments, and Analog Devices.

"Any goods with U.S. inputs (production machinery, intellectual property, components, etc.) falls under U.S. export controls no matter where they are manufactured," Benjamin Hilgenstock, a senior economist at the Kyiv School of Economics and a member of the international working group on sanctions against Russia, told The Buro.

Texas Instruments and Analog Devices told the outlet that they did not do business with the company mentioned above, which supplied American chips to Russia.  

In late 2023, the trio of businessmen sold NEK to Vitaly Privolnev, who had managed the firm since 2016. The Buro believes that the Privolnev is likely a front for the three original owners.

Through another firm registered in Minsk, called SkyGlobal, Khvalko reportedly supplied Russia with 230,000 Western made parts, worth $1.5 million. The recipient, a company called Bulat, is controlled by two U.S. sanctioned entities: Rostelecom and the Elvees Research and Production Center.

In 2021, SMD BY, another company owned by Khvalko, Bohush, Radkevičs and SMD Baltic manager Pāvels Levins, opened a manufacturing facility in a Belarussian business park to supply the Eurasian Economic Union with electronic circuit boards.

After renaming itself “Micromount” three months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the firm began selling semiconductors to Russian firm Kontraktika which is owned by an associate of theirs, Vital Khatsuk.

Khatsuk formerly worked for Alsochip, a Belarussian company owned by Khvalko and Bohush.

The Buro’s investigation also revealed that since 2023, one of Micromount’s biggest customers has been Geoscan, a Russian technology conglomerate based in St Petersburg, to which it sold over $1 million dollars worth of components. 

The United States sanctioned Geoscan for its role in producing drones for the Kremlin’s war effort. Innopraktika, a fund managed by Vladimir Putin’s youngest daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, owns a 10% stake in the group.

Micromount also sold electronic components to Reglab, part of the Prosoft-Sistemy group. Before the war, the latter enjoyed a close relationship with Uralvagonzavod, the world’s biggest tank manufacturer.

When The Buro presented to Khvalko, he told them that “[w]e don't work with anything related to war. This is our principled position.”

Although violating sanctions by shipping Western chips to Russia, Khvalko and his partners are thought to have made at least $2.5 million and the revenues of SkyGlobal and Micromount increased by factors of 70 and 12, respectively.

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The Crime Messenger: How Sky ECC Phones Became a Tool of the Criminal Trade

What do criminals say to each other when they think nobody can hear?

The fall of Sky Global — an encrypted communications company that once promised limitless privacy — may be our best-ever chance to find out.

For years, the company’s specially modified phones were an essential tool for fugitive bank robbers, global drug traffickers, and Serbian criminal organizations. In text messages and voice recordings, in groups and in one-on-one chats, these men discussed their next cocaine shipments, argued about the logistics of upcoming heists, and bragged about their latest acts of savagery.

Eventually, police agencies and prosecutors from multiple countries closed in. Their efforts led to the indictment of the company’s founder and 30 others in a Paris court earlier this year.

The company says it did its best to control its users, and bears no responsibility if a few criminals slipped through.

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Eduard Lebedev Arrested in Cyprus, Accused of Running Illegal Online Casinos

Cyprus frequently finds itself at the centre of attention for extraditing cybercriminals to the United Kingdom. Thanks to its historically close cooperation with British law enforcement and efficient legal mechanisms, the island has become a key hub in the fight against cybercrime.

Cyprus has long been favoured by individuals from the former Soviet Union involved in illegal gambling activities. On Wednesday, November 6, the Nicosia District Court held a hearing on the extradition of another Russian cybercriminal, detained in October in central Limassol. During the hearing on cyber-fraud charges, details about the scheme’s organizer emerged. The individual in question was identified as Russian citizen Eduard Eduardovich Lebedev.

The role of Eduard Lebedev and WakeApp affair

Earlier, the Cyprus Police reported Lebedev’s arrest based on a Europol warrant. The extradition request came from the United Kingdom, where he is accused of attracting UK citizens to illegal online casino platforms.

The UK is currently engaged in an active crackdown on illegal gambling. According to research, the UK’s online casino market was valued at approximately £7 billion in 2023. The British government is strengthening measures to control and counter illegal activities in this sector.

Eduard Lebedev, the organizer of online casino platforms across Europe, has not particularly hidden his activities. The 34-year-old Muscovite boldly stated on his VK social media profile,

"If your dreams don’t warrant a couple of life sentences, then they’re not really dreams."

On his social media page, he advertised his websites WakeApp—wakeappnetwork.com and wakeapp.ru—which are now offline. However, data from web archives reveal that WakeApp is the name of an affiliate network.

These facts strongly suggest that the Russian citizen Eduard Lebedev, arrested in Cyprus under a Europol warrant, is the owner of a vast holding in the online casino industry. The court heard accusations against Lebedev of operating illegal online casino platforms across Europe.

Overall, Eduard Lebedev’s arrest serves as a significant event within the ongoing dialogue about online gambling regulation. It reflects broader societal concerns regarding legality, ethics, and accountability within industries that operate in grey areas. As more details emerge from this investigation, stakeholders across various sectors will be watching closely to see how this case unfolds and what it means for the future of online gambling regulation globally.

The Nicosia District Court has postponed the case of Eduard Lebedev and scheduled the next hearing for late February.

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The Shadow Investor

For years, one man colluded with corrupt customs officials to dominate the vast flow of Chinese imports — everything from t-shirts to high-end electronics — that sustain Central Asia.

He raked in massive profits. He built powerful secret alliances. His employee admitted to laundering hundreds of millions of dollars on his behalf. Then he was exposed, his top government patron pleading guilty to corruption and landing on a sanctions list.

You’d think the authorities would crack down. But you’d be wrong.

Today, Khabibula Abdukadyr and his family have transformed their shadowy fortune into a global empire. The same companies that were used to funnel laundered funds have become investors in expansive real estate developments, gleaming residential and office towers, mosques, markets, factories, and more.

This is the story of how a man accused of building a vast smuggling empire has turned himself and his brothers into big-time businessmen — as Central Asian governments welcomed their money with open arms.

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Story Killers

Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh was uncharacteristically relaxed the day she was murdered.

That morning, she had put the finishing touches on an editorial about the rise of disinformation for the weekly newspaper she ran, Gauri Lankesh Patrike. Known for defending the poor and her biting takedowns of the right wing, Lankesh drew on her own experience as a high-profile target of digital hate campaigns as she wrote "In the Age of False News."

Lankesh described how India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used “lie-factories” — websites that traffic in rumors and half-truths — to spread disinformation online, from false reports to doctored photos aimed at discrediting the government’s critics. Internet users with a political agenda then spread these lies, she said, using “the fake news as their weapon.”

Lankesh never saw the editorial in print. As she walked up to the entryway of her house, the cracks of four gunshots echoed through the neighborhood: The first hit her in the back, while two more lodged in her abdomen. She died instantly.

Lankesh’s murder, in September 2017, sent shockwaves across India, which has become an increasingly dangerous country for journalists since the BJP came to power. Hundreds of mourners attended her state funeral, holding signs reading, “I am also Gauri.”

The BJP in Karnataka, the state where Lankesh was killed, did not reply to requests for comment.

Prosecutors believe Lankesh was murdered by religious fanatics associated with Hindu nationalists. Seventeen alleged members of an organized crime syndicate with roots in various hardline groups are now on trial in Bangalore, accused of plotting to murder Lankesh “at any cost” for fear she would bring Hinduism into disrepute.

Before her death, Lankesh had been the target of relentless online harassment, which reached a fever pitch after she was convicted of libel for “hurting religious sentiments" in late 2016. Trolls labeled her a “known Hindu hater” and “prestitute,” while others called for her death.

“They decided to target Gauri because of how she was perceived,” said a local journalist, who asked not to be named. The hatred, he said, “grew and grew and grew.”

Those who knew her say Lankesh saw combating fake news as part of a larger battle against the fracturing of society. Her final editorial ended with a call to action: “I want to salute all those who expose fake news. I wish there were more of them.”

Forbidden Stories, whose mission is to continue the work of threatened, imprisoned or assassinated journalists, has taken up that call. Bringing together over 100 journalists from 30 media organizations, the French nonprofit created the “Story Killers” project to investigate the global disinformation-for-hire industry.

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The Pegasus Project

They never heard it. There was no beep, no sound at all. But in those silent seconds, a digital intruder entered their phones. Their private moments and their professional secrets became instantly accessible. Even their cameras could be activated to snap photos at the will of a faraway attacker.

The perpetrators were most likely their own governments. Their tool used to break in was Pegasus, a cutting-edge spyware product made by the Israeli company NSO Group.

Through Pegasus, corrupt and troubled regimes across the world can gain access to vast troves of personal information on just about anyone they want. The spyware, sold as a crime-fighting tool, is already known to have been used against journalists, activists, and political dissidents.

But NSO Group is so secretive, and its product is so stealthy, that it’s been nearly impossible to understand the scope of its use. So when a group of journalists gained access to a list of 50,000 phone numbers that had allegedly been picked as targets of the spyware, we sprang into action.

Working with new data from the journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and human rights group Amnesty International, OCCRP and 16 media partners around the world worked to uncover who might have fallen victim to Pegasus, and tell their stories.

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How Iran Used an International Playboy to Launder Oil Money

The Republic of Iran had a problem throughout the 2010s: How to sell oil to countries like China that didn’t want to flout U.S. and EU sanctions aimed at Iran’s nuclear program.

It was a problem solved in part by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a state bank, and a money launderer, Reza Zarrab.

Though he worked in the shadows, Zarrab’s extravagant lifestyle made him famous in Istanbul, where he was known as “The Turkish Gatsby.” His 2016 arrest in Miami established him as the star witness in what became the long-running prosecution of Halkbank, Turkey’s leading state-owned bank.

On May 3, Halkbank – and by extension the Erdoğan regime – goes on trial in New York City, accused of helping Iran evade sanctions.

For more than a year, a group of journalists led by OCCRP analyzed nearly 750,000 documents and transaction records used in Zarrab’s U.S. prosecution, as well as Suspicious Activity Reports that became part of the 2020 FinCEN Files investigation. Read on to learn what we found.

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The Matraimov Kingdom

At a recent performance on Kyrgyzstan’s independence day, an improvisational poet known as an akyn memorably called out the country’s endemic corruption in front of its president, top officials, and foreign guests.

To the strains of a traditional Kyrgyz lute, the akyn denounced “big ones who stealthily fill their pockets,” “electors who have grabbed the ballot boxes and steal votes,” and the country’s customs service, where “money is taken out in buckets.”

The last allusion would not have been lost on his audience. For years, deputy customs chief Raimbek Matraimov enabled — and profited from — a smuggling empire run by a secretive Uighur family.

Matraimov is no longer in the customs service. But over the years, he and his brothers, who still hold important public functions, have amassed vast riches — and converted them into influence.

From living an extravagant lifestyle on modest declared salaries, to secretly taking control of private customs facilities and trade routes, to pouring wealth into a crucial election campaign, the Matraimovs embody many of the brave poet’s warnings about the dangers of corruption in the heart of Central Asia.

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GROUP AMERICA: A US-Serbian Drug Gang With Friends In The Shadows

They’ve been accused of dismembering enemies with chainsaws, assassinating senior government officials and trading on ties with intelligence agencies. They’ve smuggled cocaine — tons and tons of it — across the world and now feed a sizable share of Europe’s drug habit.

Yet few outside of law enforcement have heard of Group America.

The decades-old criminal organization with roots in New York and the Balkans operates in dozens of countries, but its leaders have shown amazing ability to evade capture.

Group America’s 60-year-old leader lives quietly but openly in New York. More than one senior police source has attributed the organization's success to its ties with security services and intelligence agencies — perhaps even the CIA.

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The Cruel Road North

Every year, Latin American smuggling networks exploit thousands of people from Africa and Asia as they try to make their way to the United States and Canada.

Their journeys are long, difficult, and dangerous.

Each migrant travels thousands of miles by plane to South America, often stopping in several countries along the way. Once in the Americas they secretly make their way north on buses or planes, on speed boats or rafts, in taxis or private cars. Many have been raped, robbed, or killed, left to die in the jungle or abandoned in the desert of the southwestern U.S.

It’s a lucrative business. Police documents, official statistics, and accounts from dozens of migrants suggest Latin America’s smuggling networks are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the clandestine trade, which is then moved around the world through front men, small businesses, and money transfer companies.

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The Great Gambia Heist

For more than two decades, Yahya Jammeh ruled over Gambia, a tiny West African country known for tropical beaches and tranquility in a region often rocked by conflict.

Jammeh quickly became a dictator after taking power in a 1994 coup d’etat. His administration was implicated in widespread human rights abuses and several waves of brutal crackdowns on dissent. And his bizarre personality drew headlines around the world after he gave himself five titles and claimed to be able to cure AIDS.

Throughout his years in power, Jammeh flaunted his wealth. His lavish private estate in his home village was home to exotic animals, a military training camp and scores of luxury vehicles. He was known to drive a stretch Hummer around the country and he travelled in private jets.

But most of Jammeh’s financial dealings remained hidden — until now.

In a series of stories, OCCRP exposes for the first time how Jammeh and his associates plundered nearly US$1 billion of timber resources and Gambia’s public funds. Tens of thousands of documents — including government correspondence, contracts, bank records, internal investigations, and legal documents — lay bare the true scale of the theft.

Jammeh’s powerful inner circle helped him to solidify his power. He formed lucrative partnerships with foreign businessmen, including Mohamed Bazzi, a Lebanese businessman and financier for the Hezbollah militant group, that would pave the way for the looting of nearly $364 million from the state-run telecoms company. He also worked with two Romanian businessmen, Nicolae and Dragos Buzaianu, to secure $325.5 million in illicit timber revenue.

The former president played China and Taiwan against each other to obtain more than $100 million of bilateral aid that was dished out with few questions asked.

The Gambian people paid the biggest price for Jammeh’s corruption as he stole $60 million from the country’s pension fund.

To this day, Jammeh has never been charged with a crime.