Corruption

The UK government will examine the role of cryptocurrency donations in politics as part of a wider review of party-financing rules triggered by a bribery case involving a Reform UK politician, Bloomberg reported.

Former Bolivian President Luis Arce was arrested on Wednesday as part of a sweeping corruption investigation, just a month after conservative President Rodrigo Paz took office and ended two decades of left-wing rule, according to the Associated Press.  

Israel’s largest defense company, Elbit Systems, has been suspended by NATO’s procurement arm and barred from bidding for work amid a widening corruption investigation into alleged bribery around military contracts.

The UK government is taking aim at corrupt bankers, lawyers, and accountants and deploying new tech tools to identify dirty money as part of a new strategy to root out tens of billions in illicit funds entering the country each year.

Switzerland’s attorney general has filed criminal charges against UBS and a former Credit Suisse compliance officer, alleging failures to prevent money laundering linked to the long-running Mozambique “tuna bonds” scandal, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A Singapore court has allowed a $2.7-billion lawsuit against Standard Chartered Bank to proceed over its alleged role in the looting of Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign fund, according to Reuters.

French investigators have stepped up their probe into alleged corruption at Patrick Drahi’s Altice telecoms group with a series of coordinated raids across the country, seizing cash, luxury goods and other assets, Bloomberg reported.

Law enforcement raids on luxury Kyiv apartments, including one bathroom fitted with a golden toilet, and images of duffel bags stuffed with cash have plunged President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration into its biggest corruption crisis since he took office, the Financial Times reported. 

Albanian organized crime groups have tightened their grip at home and expanded across Europe while drawing minimal pushback from Brussels, according to a Follow the Money investigation conducted with media partner BLAST. 

Belgian authorities have officially charged former European commissioner Didier Reynders with money laundering, a person familiar with the case confirmed to Follow the Money. He is not being held in custody.