Leftist French media outlet Mediapart is reportedly upset with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for sharing their report linking OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) and the US government amid the ongoing row in Parliament over Adani Group and George Soros. 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 as per the Mediapart report.
The ruling party in India, BJP, shared parts of the Mediapart report, highlighting the collusion between OCCRP, US government officials, and the Indian opposition. However, BJP sharing parts of their report hasn’t gone down well with Mediapart.
It has always been the U.S. State Department behind this agenda.
— BJP (@BJP4India) December 5, 2024
A French investigative media group, Mediapart, has revealed that OCCRP is funded by the U.S. State Department's USAID, along with other deep state figures like George Soros and the Rockefeller Foundation.
In fact,… pic.twitter.com/dysNTpLbQg
Reacting to it, the leftist French media organisation responded on December 7, “Mediapart firmly condemns the instrumentalisation of its recently published investigative article about OCCRP by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in order to serve BJP’s political agenda and attack press freedom.”
The statement was issued by Mediapart Director and publisher Carine Fouteau. She further said that BJP wrongly exploited Mediapart’s article in order to spread fake news that they never published. However, it was never clarified what was the fake news that BJP spread.
“There are no facts available supporting the conspiracy theory promoted by BJP,” said Mediapart’s publisher, without explaining what part of BJP sharing their own report amounts to a conspiracy theory.
Notably, on December 2, Mediapart published a report titled ‘The hidden links between a giant of investigative journalism and the US government’, where it delved into the overwhelming influence of the US government on the working of OCCRP.
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 organisation had run a hit piece on Indian conglomerate Adani Group.
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.
