OCCRP’s Global Fight Against Corruption Offers Lessons for Fraud Examiners

“We are in the Golden Age of crime and corruption,” Drew Sullivan, co-founder and publisher of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), told fraud examiners during the keynote session of the 37th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. He and Paul Radu, OCCRP’s co-founder and head of innovation, sat down with Mason Wilder, CFE, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) research director, to talk about the essential role of collaboration as crime and corruption grow more complex and transnational. Sullivan and Radu are the recipients of the ACFE Guardian Award, which honors journalists whose determination, perseverance and commitment to the truth have contributed significantly to the fight against fraud. 

Sullivan described a global financial system in which illicit actors increasingly gain access to many of the same services enjoyed by legitimate businesses. Lobbyists, lawyers, hedge funds and other professional facilitators have become part of what OCCRP calls the criminal services industry. Sullivan and Radu said that the integration of illicit and legitimate economies has made financial crime significantly harder to detect and disrupt. Criminal organizations, they said, have transformed accumulated wealth into political and economic influence through purchase of real estate portfolios, land holdings and other assets allegedly acquired with criminal proceeds. 

Taking on Corrupt Networks 

For nearly two decades, OCCRP has built a reputation as one of the world’s most influential investigative journalism organizations. Its reporting has exposed money laundering networks, kleptocratic regimes, organized crime syndicates and the financial infrastructure that allows illicit wealth to flow through the global economy. But according to Sullivan and Radu, their work expands beyond journalism and focuses on building partnerships with people whose work turns revelations into results, including fraud examiners, auditors and investigators.  

Radu noted that OCCRP’s investigations have contributed to the recovery of more than $11 billion from organized crime groups, corrupt officials and illicit actors. “This work would not have been possible without auditors, without fraud examiners, without law enforcement who picked up our findings, our exposés, and ran with them,” he said.  

The organization itself was born from humble beginnings. Sullivan joked that OCCRP started because he and Radu needed access to LexisNexis and wanted to share the cost of a subscription between their reporting centers in Bosnia and Romania. But as they investigated criminal organizations across borders, they quickly discovered that crime and corruption were globalized businesses. Criminal networks collaborated internationally, shared resources and moved funds seamlessly across jurisdictions. The realization convinced them that investigators needed networks too. “We realized this was a network. We needed a network to fight it,” Sullivan said.  

That lesson remains highly relevant for fraud examiners today. Financial crime rarely exists in a vacuum. What appears to be a single fraud scheme may be part of a larger system involving shell companies, correspondent banks and multiple jurisdictions. Radu described one early investigation involving a Romanian businessman who was cheated out of $500,000. Court records in Moldova revealed far more than a single fraud. Embedded banking records connected at least 11 criminal organizations, including Russian, Romanian, Vietnamese and Mexican groups, all laundering money through the same channel. “Individual cases are amazing entry points into systemic crime and corruption,” Radu said.  

That systemic perspective has shaped OCCRP’s investigative methodology and offers a framework for fraud professionals seeking to identify broader risks. Rather than focusing solely on individual transactions, Radu encouraged investigators to understand the infrastructure that makes fraud possible. Looking beyond one suspicious payment often reveals networks, intermediaries and recurring patterns that can expose much larger schemes.  

Leveraging Data in Fraud Investigations 

For fraud examiners, one of the keynote’s most practical messages centered on data. Sullivan emphasized that traditional transaction-by-transaction reviews are often inadequate against sophisticated laundering schemes that span multiple jurisdictions and institutions. “It’s all about data,” he said, adding that investigators must embrace large-scale analytical approaches capable of identifying networks rather than isolated anomalies. Modern money laundering operations commonly involve mirrored trades, multiple accounts and complex ownership structures that can only be understood through broader data analysis.  

Artificial intelligence (AI), he said, will further transform anti-fraud work. Although many organizations are only beginning to experiment with AI-powered tools, Sullivan said he believes the technology will dramatically improve investigators’ ability to identify relationships, uncover hidden patterns and prioritize leads. However, technology alone is not enough. Success depends on obtaining and organizing large volumes of quality data.  

Collaborating to Make a Difference 

Radu offered a real-world example from OCCRP’s investigations into major money laundering by citing the group’s Laundromat operations. After one investigation, officials from Deutsche Bank invited him to discuss the findings. Rather than focusing on analyzing every transaction individually, Radu recommended concentrating on correspondent banking relationships that enabled large-scale laundering. By identifying critical areas within a financial network, investigators can significantly reduce the scope of an investigation while achieving a much larger impact. “When you go big data, when you go systemic, I think that’s where the game is,” he said.  

Beyond technology, both founders returned repeatedly to the human element of investigative work. They stressed the importance of collaboration, persistence and storytelling. Fraud examiners, journalists, auditors and law enforcement agencies each possess pieces of the puzzle, but meaningful results occur when those groups work together. Sullivan praised professionals who choose to remain committed to ethical principles even when facing organizational pressure. Expertise, he noted, takes decades to develop and shouldn’t be lost. 

As financial crime grows more sophisticated and increasingly global, the experiences of OCCRP suggest that fraud examiners must think bigger, collaborate more broadly and leverage data more strategically. The organization’s central lesson is simple but powerful: Every fraud case may be a gateway into a much larger network. Following the money remains essential, but understanding the systems behind the money may ultimately be what allows investigators to make the greatest difference.