The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which published a hit piece on the Adani Group last year, is now under the scanner over its funding from the US government agencies.
Founded in 2007, OCCRP claims to have a network of journalists across 6 continents who ‘specialise in reporting on organised crime and corruption.’
Although it brands itself as an independent organisation, in reality, OCCRP receives a huge share of funding from the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The disturbing revelations about its ties with the US government were made by the French newspaper ‘Mediapart’ in an investigative piece published on Monday (2nd December).
Titled ‘The hidden links between a giant of investigative journalism and the US government’, Mediapart delves into the overwhelming influence of the US government on the working of OCCRP.
“While the OCCRP presents itself as being totally independent, its management have placed it in a position of structural dependence upon the US government, as revealed in this investigation,” it stated.
OCCRP and its financial dependence on US govt agencies
According to Mediapart, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project was created due to the financial support extended by the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
“Still today, Washington provides around half of the budget of the OCCRP, and has the power to veto the nomination of “key personnel” in the NGO, including Drew Sullivan,” it added.
The French newspaper emphasised, “While the OCCRP does indicate on its website that it receives funding from the US Department of State, and notably from the US Agency for International Development, USAID, it conceals the extent of the funding and the strings attached to it from its media partners, journalists and the wider public. The US government financing is never mentioned in OCCRP-produced articles.”
Senior adviser with USAID’s Europe and Eurasia Office, Mike Henning, has even dubbed OCCRP as ‘one of the best achievements’ made by the US govt agency.
“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. Sullivan responds to that by underlining that the UN Democracy Fund payment was indeed the first that the NGO received,” Mediapart stated.
Since its inception, 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.
“The OCCRP appears uncomfortable about the scale of US funding, as the amounts are not published on the NGO’s website,” Mediapart noted.
Influence of US govt on reporting by OCCRP
According to Mediapart, OCCRP has funded a programme which uses investigations by OCCRP to prompt sanction procedures and judicial probes.
Interestingly, the so-called ‘independent organisation’ does not report critically about the US government but foreign powers such as Russia, Malta, Cyprus and Venezuela which are antagonistic to the American interests.
“The Department of State also gave 173,324 dollars to the OCCRP for a mission of “uncovering and combatting Venezuelan corruption” – Venezuela’s autocratic president Nicolás Maduro is a high-profile enemy of the US,” the French newspaper revealed.
Mediapart stated, “For a journalistic organisation to lead such activities upon the initiative and with the funding of the US, even for a just cause, raises important ethical questions.”
OCCRP and hit piece on 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’.
We 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.
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.
The notoriety of USAID
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.
According to a research report published by the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, USAID interference led to the 2018 uprising in Nicaragua. An extraordinary leaked document revealed the US government’s plan to interfere with the internal affairs in Nicaragua before and after the 2021 presidential election.
The 14-page extract of a much longer document outlined a contract of USAID to create “the environment for Nicaragua’s transition to democracy.” William Grigsby from Radio La Primerisima revealed the plan in the document that described how USAID worked with various NGOs, think tanks, media organisations and human rights bodies to support opposition to the Ortega government.
To support and justify the interference by the US body, the document misrepresented historical events such as claims that the Sandinista party manipulated the elections even though the Organization of American States (OAS) acknowledged there were only minor irregularities. Furthermore, it also rewrote the 2018 uprising narrative ignoring the fact that the opposition indulged in violence and economic disruption.
The US has a long history of interventions in Nicaragua dating back to 1856. The existence of such documents that revealed the plan of the US’s intervention was not surprising. Notably, Ben Waddell’s article in Global Americans points out that “US support has helped play a role in nurturing the current uprisings,” highlighting the role of US-funded groups in fostering opposition.
USAID has a long history of meddling with Venezuela’s internal affairs as well. According to a 2019 report in People’s World, USAID aligned closely with the National Endowment of Democracy in “Transition Initiatives” to promote the foreign policy goals of the US. The organisation has been an integral part of US efforts to organise humanitarian aid convoys to Venezuela which aligned with the political agenda of the US administration and then-interim president Guaido.
USAID’s Venezuela program supports civil society and democratic governance, echoing the principles of the UN Human Rights Convention. Wikileaks revealed a five-point strategy by the U.S. embassy in Caracas to undermine Chávez.
USAID and NED funded opposition groups extensively and the former’s operations often blended humanitarian aid with political motives. The State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources also works to reduce Latin American reliance on Venezuelan energy.
