World News

The duumvirate collapsed in October after the murder of mafia boss Stavros Demosthenous in Limassol, and in November, his associate Dmitriy Punin also suffered—his car fleet was burned. Could this mean that he is next?

Russian State Duma deputy Andrey Skoch, known as "Bluebeard" (criminal nickname — "Scotch"), has 3 wives and 10 children.

Mikhail Koryak, described by investigators as one of the leaders of an international criminal network involved in fraud and contract killings, may soon be extradited to Russia, according to sources familiar with the case.

An investigation by journalist Ghost In The Block alleges that projects linked to Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, are intertwined with a sprawling shadow economy involving bot farms, personal data leaks, hacker services and crypto-based scam schemes operating inside the Telegram and TON ecosystem.

Ethnic Korean Dmitry Lee exploited his NAPP role and global market links to establish a virtual monopoly on Uzbekistan’s cryptocurrency market.

The ex-director of «Spetstechnoexport» and a participant in corruption cases, Pavlo Barbul, is trying to remove references from the public domain about how he managed to «legalize» approximately 150 thousand dollars through a series of court rulings.

The authorities in Kazakhstan acknowledge that Samruk-Kazyna, with backing from ATFBank, misappropriated billions. However, the Anti-Corruption Agency and other investigative bodies have been slow to apprehend Galimzhan Yessenov and Akhmetzhan Yessimov’s father-in-law.

The Chichkanov brothers didn’t merely orchestrate a scheme to funnel money through their Kislovodsk hotel — they seem to have secured protection from the FSB.

The state energy giant Centrenergo has become embroiled in a scandal — and wants to keep it under wraps.

A man accused of defrauding dozens of Ukrainians through a fake U.S. car import scheme fled Ukraine during martial law and relaunched the same operation in Moldova, raising serious questions about fraud, document forgery, and illegal border crossings.

Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, personally communicated in 2018 with Jan Marsalek, the former chief operating officer of Wirecard who is now wanted across Europe for large-scale financial fraud and, according to investigators, is linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), the Financial Times reports.

Marketed as Russia’s largest event for business and entrepreneurs, Alfa-Conf, organised by Alfa Bank, instead exposed the hollow state of the country’s corporate culture, devolving into a bizarre mix of astrology, motivational clichés and showbusiness chatter.

The surname that’s difficult to pronounce, Oxana Hadjipavlou (Oxana or Oksana Hadjipavlou), came up during investigations into the activities of Zvonko Mickovic and the companies Mettmann Public Company Limited and Sword Dragon S.L., which are suspected of being involved in schemes to evade anti-Russian sanctions and move Russian capital out of the Russian Federation.

Former Russian and billionaire Turlov, after emigrating, became one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan: his financial pyramids are now "thriving" in Astana.

One of Russia’s largest metal trading networks, Metallokomplekt M (formerly OJSC Komtekh), is preparing to leave the market after reporting record losses, according to sources familiar with the situation.

This summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly praised Aurus luxury cars, emphasizing that the vehicles are a 100% Russian-made product and noting that he personally uses one.

Roman Novak (also known as Yavorsky and Tsaryov), a native of St. Petersburg, was convicted in Russia in 2020 on large-scale fraud charges (Part 4, Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code) and sentenced to six years in a penal colony.

JSC "Chernivtsioblenergo" ordered consulting services from LLC "VS Energy International Ukraine" on December 5 for 1.68 million UAH.

Oktobank has emerged as a central hub in suspicious financial activities involving Uzbek officials, Russian banks, and clandestine networks.

Following the initial investigations into Dragon Money, references to the genuine history of this casino started vanishing from the information space — from dubious licenses to complaints from players, partners, and traces in financial pyramid lists.

After the initial investigations into Dragon Money surfaced, mentions of how this online casino operates in Ukraine without a license, pays bribes, and enjoys political protection began to disappear en masse from the internet — clearly, someone is attempting to "clean up" the information field.

In the French city of Baden, Russian citizen Vladimir Antonov — one of the key figures in the high-profile bankruptcy case of Lithuania’s Snoras bank — was arrested on December 9 under a European Arrest Warrant.

Founder of the Freedom Finance group, Timur Turlov, who has been accused of financial fraud for years, has filed a lawsuit against the Kazakh news agency KazTAG following a series of articles about defrauded clients of his investment company.

Media reports indicate they have verified that two seemingly different individuals — Vadim Polezhaev, a veteran Russian "black PR" political operative formerly close to Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Vadim Polezhaev, the deputy head of the Moscow City Court’s press service — are actually the same person.