Thief Of The Year  

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Person of the Year Award

Since 2012, OCCRP has dedicated the Person of the Year Award that "recognizes the individual or institution that has done the most to advance organized criminal activity and corruption in the world".^[13]

• 2012 – Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan – Other mentions: Naser Kelmendi, Milo Đukanović, Vladimir Putin, Miroslav Mišković, Islam Karimov, Darko Šarić [de]^[14]
• 2013 – Parliament of Romania – Other mentions: Darko Šarić, Gulnara Karimova^[15]
• 2014 – Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation – Other mentions: Viktor Orbán, Milo Đukanović^[16]
• 2015 – Milo Đukanović, Prime Minister of Montenegro – Other mentions: First Family of Azerbaijan, Nikola Gruevski^[17]
• 2016 – Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela – Other mentions: Rodrigo Duterte, Bashar al-Assad, ISIL/ISIS, Raúl Castro/Luis Alberto Rodríguez, Vladimir Putin^[13]
• 2017 – Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines – Other mentions: Jacob Zuma, Robert Mugabe^[12]
• 2018 – Danske Bank (as Actor of the Year, because it is a company, not a human), for the money laundering scandal^[18] – Other mentions: Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Mohammed bin Salman, Donald Trump
• 2019 – Joseph Muscat, for the flourishing of criminality and corruption under his leadership as Prime Minister of Malta^[19] – Other mentions: Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso
• 2020 – Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, for "surrounding himself with corrupt figures, using propaganda to promote his populist agenda, undermining the justice system, and waging a destructive war against the Amazon region that has enriched some of the country’s worst land owners." – Other mentions: President of the United States Donald Trump, President of Turkey Recep Erdoğan, and Ihor Kolomoyskyi^[20]
• 2021 – Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, "in recognition of all he has done to advance organized criminal activity and corruption." – Other mentions: Former President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Former Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz^[21]

The fact that Zuma & Mugabe are rated as just second class thieves is pretty amazing.

 

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project     
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), founded in 2006, is a consortium of investigative centers, media and journalists operating in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Central America. OCCRP is the only full-time investigative reporting organization [ see https://www.occrp.org/en ] that specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through local media and in English and Russian through its website. In 2017, NGO Advisor ranked it 69th in the world in their annual list of the 500 best non-governmental organizations (NGO).