The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a consortium of investigative centers, media, and journalists operating in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Central America.
Khabibula Abdukadyr ran a Central Asian trading empire built on collusion with corrupt customs officials, was accused of laundering hundreds of millions in profits abroad, and got exposed. But far from being prosecuted, he and his family have only grown in influence.
For years, the Abdukadyr family’s personal money launderer sent their dirty money abroad using a variety of invented pretexts. Some U.S. bank officers got suspicious -- but the transactions continued.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev promised reforms and transparency. But among the top foreign investors pouring money into his new Uzbekistan are the Abdukadyrs, a secretive clan who made their fortune in crime and corruption.
The Abdukadyr family earned hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to their corrupt alliance with officials in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Now their trading business is booming in Uzbekistan -- where President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s government has welcomed them with open arms.
Their bribery and smuggling schemes were exposed, but that hasn't stopped the secretive Khabibula Abdukadyr and his relatives. With new political alliances and projects worth billions around the world, they’re more powerful than ever.
A leading independent journalist in Kyrgyzstan says police planted drugs on him as retribution for his exposés of corruption. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s how sex, lies, and secret surveillance were deployed against one of the country’s top investigative outlets.
