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Montenegro Convicts Journalist of Criminal Association

A Montenegro court found on Tuesday an investigative journalist, who was researching organized crime groups, guilty of drug trafficking and criminal association. International press freedom organisations labeled the verdict as unfair and demanded his immediate acquittal.   Jovo Martinovic (Photo: Reporters Without Borders, CC BY-SA 4.0) Jovo Martinovic was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Both counts against him were related to his work as a journalist, with the court claiming…

Bulgarian officials charged in passport scam

Prosecutors in Bulgaria said on Friday they detained 20 people this week for issuing fake documents that made a number of foreigners eligible for Bulgarian citizenship and therefore access to the EU. The suspects, including senior government officials, were charged with bribery and organized crime. The statement from the Prosecution Office gave no further details at the time but later identified one of the detained as Petar Haralampiev, the head of…

Malta’s Pilatus Bank shut down over fraud charges

The European Central Bank has revoked the licence of Malta’s Pilatus Bank after its chairman was arrested in the US on money-laundering charges. Malta’s Financial Services Authority announced the move, saying it had called on the ECB to take action. Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car-bomb a year ago, accused the bank of processing corrupt payments. The EU has been investigating the bank ever since her…

Daily Beast: Danske Bank Scandal Whistleblower Allegedly Killed

In 2006, the first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, Andrei Kozlov, attempted to tell authorities in Estonia about a money-laundering scheme that had been created in the Baltic financial system. Three months later he was dead, age 44, and the scheme would later be revealed as the US$200 billion Danske Bank scandal, according to the Daily Beast. Danske Bank, Tallinn (Photo: Pjotr Mahhonin, CC BY-SA 4.0) The Estonian branch of Danske Bank,…