The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which had previously targeted India and the Adani Group, is now under the scanner following the publication of an explosive investigative report by Mediapart.
The French newspaper has revealed on Monday (2nd December) that OCCRP, which poses as an independent, non-partisan organisation, is funded by US government agencies and works to serve their interests.
OCCRP was founded in 2007 in Bosnia’s capital city Sarajevo by a ‘journalist’ named Drew Sullivan in cahoots with the US government. It has spread its ‘network of journalists’ to every continent and has connections to 50 media partners.
The US government-funded NGO prides itself on ensuring the fall of Heads of government in 5-6 countries. The idea of OCCRP was first floated by Drew Sullivan to the Director of USAID (Sarajevo) in 2003.
A year later, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) was opened in Bosnia’s capital city with financing from USAID.
According to Mediapart, the funds were managed by a company owned by Drew Sullivan named Journalism Development Group (JDG). Fast forward to 2006, he quit CIN to start OCCRP with another founder named Paul Radu.
Funding sources of OCCRP
In the following year, OCCRP received $3,46,000 from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu need more money to operate and hence approached an US army officer named David Hodgkinson.
In 2007, he was the director in the US State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Hodgkinson used his influence to get OCCRP funds from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of US State Department.
In May 2008, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project received $1.7 million from USAID after INL was found to have no competence in media activites.
As of today, David Hodgkinson works in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). It gives a fair idea of the influence of the US government and deep State on the ‘independent’ OCCRP.
According to Mediapart, OCCRP has received at least $47 million from the US government, $14 million from European countries (Britiain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia and France) and $1.1 million from the European Union since its inception.
The French newspaper, in its explosive piece, revealed that government funding accounted for 70% of the annual budget of OCCRP between 2014 and 2023. 52% of the funds were provided by the US government alone.
It must be mentioned that Drew Sullivan did not land USAID funding out of thin air. 7 years prior to establishing OCCRP, he had visited Sarajevo to train Bosnian journalists as part of a programme funded by the US government agency.
Sullivan had also worked on the US Space shuttle programme and spy satellite shuttles. According to Mediapart, he had a top-secret security clearance.
How OCCRP tries to hide its ties to US government
In its report, Mediapart noted, “While the OCCRP presents itself as being totally independent, its management have placed it in a position of structural dependence upon the US government.”
It stated that the NGO also withholds/ conceals the extent of funding by the USAID and State Department from the public, media partners and journalists.
“The US government financing is never mentioned in OCCRP-produced articles…OCCRP appears uncomfortable about the scale of US funding, as the amounts are not published on the NGO’s website,” the French newspaper added.
It further highlighted, “The OCCRP has omitted from its official history the role played by the US government in its creation, only mentioning the funding by the UN…OCCRP has never publicly disclosed the role of the INL and David Hodgkinson in its financing.”
OCCRP co-founder Drew Sullivan has acknowledged that his independent ‘network of journalists’ could not have been created without funding from US government agencies.
In order to keep the illusion of its ‘independence and non-partisanship’ alive, it removed the phrase ‘OCCRP is made possible by’ and the logo of USAID from the homepage.
According to Mediapart, it is essential for all organisations to prominently acknowledge financial support from USAID.
However, OCCRP has been allowed a ‘partial branding waiver’ that allows it to not follow the usual process of acknowledgement.
Influence on reporting by OCCRP
The US State Department and USAID exerts influence on the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project through its financing.
USAID can veto the appoinment of ‘key personnel’ in OCCRP. It also has a ‘cooperative agreement’ and a ‘substantial involvement clause’ with the NGO, which claims to be ‘independent.’
According to Mediapart, USAID uses OCCRP reports to trigger judicial probes and sanction procedures. OCCRP cannot investigate the US government and is directed to probe foreign governments hostile to American interests.
These unfortunate countries include Russia, Venezuela, Malta and Cyprus. Mediapart noted, “Not only is the US government largely untargeted by OCCRP reporting, but it also manages to orientate the NGO’s coverage by providing funds which the OCCRP has an obligation to use on reports that focus on designated countries.”
Drew Sullivan has himself conceded that one cannot report against a country with their own money. “We couldn’t use US government or Soros money for US stories,” he said in an email to OCCRP journalists in 2023.
It became evident when Sullivan did not pay heed to allegations of corruption scandal by US-based companies such as Microsoft and Bechtel.
The lack of independence and involvement of the US government in OCCRP had forced prominent US journalist Lowell Bergmann to resign from the Board.
It is interesting to note that OCCRP is bound by law to comply with the US Foreign Assistance Act, pertaining to aid money received abroad to advance US economic interests and foreign policy.
How OCCRP targets foreign govts at the behest of US agencies
OpIndia had previously reported how USAID, which funds OCCRP, had been at the helm of ‘regime change’ operation in India’s neighbouring country of Bangladesh.
Given the extent of financing by the US government, OCCRP is bound to conduct investigations in countries that are considered top priority by the former.
The US State Department has doled out funds specifically to target foreign nations. Mediapart found that it donated $2.2 million to OCCRP between 2015 and 2019 for a hitjob titled ‘Balancing the Russian Media Sphere.’
Again, OCCRP received $1.7 million for another mission titled ‘Strengthening Investigative Journalism in Eurasia’, targeting China, Russia and central Asia. The project ran between 2019 and 2023.
According to the directives of the US government, the NGO created a database of assets that are controlled by Russian politicians globally.
The US State Department also financed $1,73,324 to OCCRP to ‘uncover corruption’ in Venezuela, whose President is a staunch enemy of the United States.
In 2013, the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs gave $2,00,156 to the ‘independent organisation’ to expose drug cartels in Mexico.
Countries such as Malta and Cyprus were also targeted, with donations to the tune of $2.3 million from the US State Department, between 2022 and 2024.
Reports by OCCRP were then used to actively mobilise law enforcement authorities through the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium (GACC).
Mediapart states in its investigative report –
“The GACC has two missions. One of them is to prompt, on the basis of reports published by the OCCRP, and together with the actions of the local offices of Transparency International, present in 65 countries, the opening of judicial investigations into corruption, as well as sanctions procedures and the mobilisation of civil society.The second is to lobby states to toughen their anti-corruption and anti-money laundering legislation.“
GACC has been instrumental in furthering American interests through OCCRP and ‘Transparency International’ that former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed to increase its funding.
It thus makes sense why Senior adviser with USAID’s Europe and Eurasia Office, Mike Henning, had dubbed OCCRP as ‘one of the best achievements’ made by the US govt agency.
OCCRP has ties to George Soros’ OSF
In August last year, OpIndia had revealed that OCCRP is funded by the likes of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation.
OSF even gave a grant of $8,00,000 (~ ₹6.61 crores) to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project for ‘strengthening’ the organisation’s cross-border reporting and increasing the wider impact.
Opindia also analysed the 2019 annual report [pdf] of OCCRP, which made it clear that the funds provided by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations were being used for establishing ties of the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium (GACC) to civil society across various countries.
Page 24 of the report stated, “In the next year, the GACC will go farther to advance legal action and build ties with civil society partners at the global and local levels, growing its reach and impact.”
“We are grateful to our partners who have supported this unique partnership: the governments of Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Norway, and the United States and the Open Society Foundations,“ it further added.
This is in line with the textbook approach adopted by George Soros and his Open Society Foundations to influence civil society and ‘distort’ public perspectives across different nations.
OCCRP published hit piece on the Adani Group
In August 2023, OpIndia had predicted that the OCCRP was planning a shakedown of India’s financial markets, following the footsteps of US-based short seller ‘Hindenburg Research’.
The ‘network of journalists’ published two hit pieces so far – one in August 2023 and another in May 2024. The baseless claims were junked by the Adani Group and also by the Mauritius-based fund ‘360 One.’
Even the Supreme Court of India had ruled that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) report could not be used to cast doubt on the ongoing probe by SEBI.
It stated that reliance on a third-party organisation report without any verification cannot be relied on as proof.
The revelations made by Mediapart come at a time when Gautam Adani is being hounded in the US over dubious allegations of bribery.
