But the global patent system — a patchwork of national laws loosely connected by international treaties — is vulnerable to manipulation. In the case of Keytruda, a blockbuster cancer drug, companies exploited the patent system to try to extend market exclusivity well beyond the expiration of the drug’s initial patents, keeping competitors at bay and prices artificially high for years. Prolonged patent monopolies can delay cheaper alternatives entering the marketplace, prioritizing profit over patient access, straining governments’ healthcare budgets and putting patients’ health — sometimes even their lives — at risk.

For its Cancer Calculus project, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists tracked Keytruda-related patents to show how Merck & Co. and other pharmaceutical companies created a dense web of patent applications that can make it harder for more affordable versions of the drug, known as biosimilars, to enter markets around the world. Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada, did this by applying for patents for changes to formulation and dosing regimens, altering the drug’s use in combination with other agents, or for switching patients to a similar, newer version of the same drug — known as a “product hop.” Each change can potentially reset the patent clock and add years of exclusivity.

Merck’s scramble to fortify its dominance has included filing for patents that are combinations of Keytruda and another medication that aren’t necessarily new or innovative, according to experts interviewed by ICIJ.

Even if a patent isn’t ultimately approved by a patent office, the application itself can increase the complexity of the competitive landscape, creating legal and commercial uncertainty that can delay or deter competitors, patent experts said.

Patents were only part of the data that explains Keytruda’s price dominance and patients’ struggles to cope with it. ICIJ also reviewed the prices of Keytruda (known generically as pembrolizumab) across dozens of countries. Those prices can vary wildly depending on location and medical context — the result of opaque negotiations between governments and Merck. We also reviewed lawsuits and other court documents filed in Latin America to track the rising number of patients fighting in court, regulatory bodies and elsewhere to gain access to Keytruda, a trend due, in part, to its high prices. Researchers in the region see the phenomenon as part of an increasing judicialization of healthcare.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/merck-keytruda-cancer-drug-price/

OVERVIEW How Merck turned its wonder drug into a blockbuster — and priced out cancer patients worldwide Apr 13, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/keytruda-evergreening-patents-merck/

INTERACTIVE How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price Apr 13, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/cancer-drug-counterfeits-keytruda-immunotherapy/

COUNTERFEITS Counterfeiters cash in on the world’s bestselling cancer drug Apr 13, 2026

Recommended reading OVERVIEW How Merck turned its wonder drug into a blockbuster — and priced out cancer patients worldwide Apr 13, 2026 INTERACTIVE How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price Apr 13, 2026 COUNTERFEITS Counterfeiters cash in on the world’s bestselling cancer drug Apr 13, 2026

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Of the total 1,212 identified applications, most were assigned to Merck as of early 2026 — sometimes with co-applicants: 590, including subsidiaries or companies later acquired by Merck; 44 assigned to Ono Pharmaceutical; 45 assigned to other entities not affiliated with Merck; and 533 listed with no identified current assignee. Of the 533, 455 had originally been filed or co-filed by Merck (or by subsidiaries or companies later acquired by Merck); 14 were filed by Ono; and 34 were not related to Merck. ICIJ couldn’t determine the assignee for 30 of the applications. All applications included in ICIJ’s dataset are part of patent families related to Keytruda.

ICIJ relied on the date that an application was filed rather than the publication date to reflect when inventions were first formally claimed, which was most relevant to our analysis.

ICIJ included patents across all relevant legal statuses, including 211 granted, 337 pending, 120 abandoned, 24 ceased, 41 expired, six revoked, 75 withdrawn, and 398 whose status we couldn’t determine, to capture the full global landscape of patents related to Keytruda that fall within patent families identified by the European Patent Office. Including all statuses allows ICIJ to capture not only enforceable rights, but also the broader ecosystem shaping access and competition. Pending applications may, if granted, translate into enforceable rights with defined expiration dates. Abandoned applications, while no longer pursued, can still be used as evidence to restrict what others can patent.

While this analysis focuses on Keytruda, similar patenting strategies are common across the pharmaceutical industry. As such, the dynamics highlighted in this dataset reflect broader structural features of the global patent system, which is administered through national and regional offices, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office, and linked through international frameworks like the World Intellectual Property Organization. A published patent application or successful defense in major markets can deter competitors from entering other countries where there are patents for the same invention.

Patent data tools

ICIJ’s use of Espacenet and Google Patents as patent data sources presented different challenges. While Espacenet blocks automated compilation of patents data, which made it difficult to extract and use for analysis, Google Patents data can be compiled using Google Big Query service. But compiling bigger datasets from there can be costly, so we confirmed that Google Patents allowed us to retrieve information about our target list of patents in an automated and careful way. We also collected some data manually to populate our analysis spreadsheet before fact-checking.

Both sources returned hard-to-read webpage content that is tricky to transform into a structured format, a task made even more difficult by the many properties a patent can contain. At this stage, ICIJ used AI large language models to generate code in the easy-to-read Python language, which used popular Python libraries (pre-existing collections of code) to create parsers that transformed the content we extracted into a single, structured spreadsheet. Two of the Python libraries were Beautiful Soup, which selects the pieces from messy HTML, and pandas, which is used for data analysis.  We then used this dataset for the patent analysis.

The lack of transparency around Keytruda prices presented a particular challenge. Some  pricing data, as in South Africa, is readily accessible because governments publish how much patients should expect to pay for the drug (before the cost of additional services). In Europe, by contrast, it’s often only undiscounted list prices that are published — so-called ex-factory prices, set by the manufacturer prior to negotiations with governments. So while much information is available, it’s not always the same type.

ICIJ relied on the pricing data that authorities make public as well as data gathered by its media partners. Publicly available prices — found in South Africa, in Latin America and elsewhere — correspond to different situations and kinds of transactions. For example, the minimum and maximum prices a patient can expect to be charged for a vial of the drug, or the price pharmacies report. ICIJ used list prices when available to calculate a standard price per 100 mg vial, standard 200 mg dose, and one year of treatment. This enabled us to show price differences across countries. But because list prices aren’t the actual prices paid either by governments or patients, ICIJ also studied the affordability of the drug across dozens of countries.

For European countries, ICIJ obtained list prices from the Austrian National Public Health Institute (GÖG), which gathered and calculated the price data in national currency units (unweighted raw data) from national databases as part of its Pharma Price Information service. In the case of Latin American countries and South Africa, ICIJ relied on data publicly disclosed or obtained by partners. We then converted the list prices to U.S. dollars and calculated the so-called purchasing power parity rates to account for differences in price levels across countries. Purchasing power parity helps calculate how much of a local currency is required to buy a product in the domestic market that an equivalent amount of dollars would buy for the same amount in the U.S. To calculate how many vials of Keytruda a patient in these countries could afford, we divided the median annual gross earnings there by the price per Keytruda vial in that country and adjusted for purchasing power parity. For earnings data, we used a dataset known as ILOSTAT produced by the International Labour Organization.

ICIJ analyzed Keytruda-related data from around the world for its Cancer Calculus investigation. Image: Kena Betancur/Getty Images

Counting legal battles

Keytruda has become a symbol of a dysfunctional global system that disproportionately hurts poorer countries with limited healthcare budgets and little negotiating power with Big Pharma.

Data analyzed by ICIJ shows that health and legal systems are increasingly intertwined in some Latin American countries, where thousands of cancer patients have gained access to Keytruda only through a court order after public health institutions and private insurers had denied coverage of the high-cost drug. We gathered court rulings regarding Keytruda coverage over several years from three Latin American countries: Guatemala, Mexico and Chile. (Data from Mexico and Chile was shared by ICIJ partners).

ICIJ created a database for each country based on information available in the court rulings, such as the name of the patient, defendants, dates of amparo lawsuits (a legal action designed to protect constitutional rights from abuses by the state) and court rulings, Keytruda and other drug coverage, name of the court, and final decision.

We eliminated both duplicates and court rulings not related to Keytruda, and ended up with details for 163 court rulings regarding Keytruda coverage in Guatemala (96), Mexico (55) and Chile (12). The vast majority of the rulings were  in favor of patients: 95 out of 96 in Guatemala, 36 out of 55 in Mexico and 10 out of 12 in Chile.

Through these analyses, ICIJ aimed to contextualize the central issues exposed in its Cancer Calculus investigation, detailing how Merck uses patents to keep its dominance over the drug and dispelling the secrecy that surrounds drug pricing. In this way, we sought to illustrate the plight of thousands of patients in countries where the medication is either unaffordable or inaccessible, while exposing long-held practices that have made the healthcare industry, for far too many, a broken system.

Over the past few months, the Canadian government announced a proposal to ban the scam-prone machines while Tennessee, Minnesota and Indiana passed legislation to outlaw them. Just last week, the world’s largest operator of these ATMs, Bitcoin Depot, filed for bankruptcy, citing litigation and government action. Experts and authorities have for years warned about the machines’ heavy use by criminals, who rely on them as a convenient means to collect funds from scam victims.

But as the crackdown on crypto ATMs widens, one critical aspect of the scam ecosystem has escaped scrutiny: the crypto giants that have enabled these ATM operations through massive transfers of bitcoin. Because these machines often take in cash and convert that cash to bitcoin, the crypto necessary to make such conversions are essential to the ATM firms.

At ICIJ’s request, a group of cryptocurrency investigators traced billions of dollars in bitcoin transfers from brand-name crypto firms directly to the coffers of ATM companies, even as authorities issued increasingly dire warnings about potential criminal activity. ICIJ found that after attorneys general in Massachusetts, Iowa and Washington, D.C., alleged that top ATM operators were dealing heavily in scam transactions, major crypto companies continued selling them big sums of bitcoin.

This included U.S.-based exchange Kraken, which has transferred at least $1.1 billion worth of bitcoin to crypto ATM operators in recent years. ICIJ found that Kraken sent the ATM operator Athena Bitcoin at least $17 million worth of cryptocurrency after District of Columbia authorities singled out its machines last September.

“Athena’s bitcoin machines have become a tool for criminals intent on exploiting elderly and vulnerable District residents,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement at the time. “Athena knows that its machines are being used primarily by scammers yet chooses to look the other way.”

Athena Bitcoin has rejected these allegations. In response to questions from ICIJ, Kraken said that it takes its regulatory obligations seriously and maintains robust compliance controls. In a statement, a spokesperson said its “business relationships are subject to rigorous onboarding, ongoing due diligence, and enhanced monitoring standards.”

Between May 2020 and March 2025, the crypto firm Gemini provided more than half a billion dollars in bitcoin to Bitcoin Depot. Cumberland DRW, a crypto trading firm founded by billionaire Don Wilson, has also been a major supplier of bitcoin to crypto ATM firms, including Bitcoin Depot and CoinFlip, according to blockchain researchers.

Cumberland and Gemini did not respond to requests for comment.

A police lieutenant disconnects a Bitcoin Depot ATM inside a convenience store in Haverhill, Mass., on April 6, 2026. Image: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

In some cases, big crypto players provided bitcoin to ATM operators that were later criminally charged, ICIJ found. For instance, the crypto exchange Bitstamp sent at least $7 million to a firm called Crypto Dispensers between 2018 and 2024 — which fell within a timeframe when the firm used its ATM network for money laundering, according to a federal indictment.

Bitstamp did not respond to requests for comment. Firas Isa, the founder of Crypto Dispensers, who is also under indictment for money laundering, told ICIJ in an interview that Bitstamp performed rigorous audits on his firm. Isa denies the allegations in the indictment, which states that his firm received large amounts of money derived from crimes including from scam victims.

At ICIJ’s request, a half-dozen experts who specialize in analyzing bitcoin transaction records on the public ledger known as the blockchain helped examine and confirm details of these transactions. These experts included Fred Buret, of the crypto investigations firm Recoveris, and Joshua Cooper-Duckett of the firm Cryptoforensic Investigators.

Jason Ghetian, a former FBI agent specializing in crypto scams, told ICIJ that the providers of large amounts of bitcoin to crypto ATMs should have been wary of those business relationships, given the machines’ reputation for being heavily used by criminals. “These exchanges could shut these ATMs down if they don’t provide liquidity for them,” Ghetian said.

The companies have not, however, broken the law by providing the ATMs with bitcoin liquidity. In recent years, the crypto industry’s biggest players have vigorously sought to be accepted as part of the mainstream financial system, with Kraken just this year being the first to receive approval for a so-called master account with the Federal Reserve. Even amid this push for broader recognition, the most prominent crypto firms remain deeply entwined with a part of the industry that lawmakers around the world are scrambling to protect consumers from.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/crypto-atm-operator-bitcoin-depot-files-for-bankruptcy/

cryptocurrency Crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot files for bankruptcy May 19, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/retailers-keep-cashing-in-on-crypto-atms-as-scams-surge/

CRYPTOCURRENCY Retailers keep cashing in on crypto ATMs as scams surge Dec 17, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/massachusetts-sues-bitcoin-depot-alleging-the-crypto-atm-operator-knowingly-facilitated-crypto-scams/

IMPACT Massachusetts sues Bitcoin Depot, alleging the crypto ATM operator knowingly facilitated crypto scams Feb 26, 2026

Recommended reading cryptocurrency Crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot files for bankruptcy May 19, 2026 CRYPTOCURRENCY Retailers keep cashing in on crypto ATMs as scams surge Dec 17, 2025 IMPACT Massachusetts sues Bitcoin Depot, alleging the crypto ATM operator knowingly facilitated crypto scams Feb 26, 2026

Tatem had joined thousands of Americans who have collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars to sophisticated scammers relying on ATMs to rapidly convert victims’ cash into cryptocurrency. In all of these crimes, law enforcement has little chance of tracing the cryptocurrency to an owner.

“That was a lot of our savings. We’re simple people,” Tatem said, adding that the crime left her traumatized. “I couldn’t eat, I could not sleep. It was like, how can people be so cruel? It’s just beyond my comprehension.”

A ‘silent partner to many scammers’

Over the past six months, the state of Connecticut suspended Bitcoin Depot’s banking license for lapses in anti-money laundering controls; Missouri’s attorney general opened an investigation into several crypto ATM operators, including Bitcoin Depot; and Nevada and Maine settled enforcement actions with the firm, requiring it to pay fines and comply with state rules. Massachusetts’ attorney general also recently sued Bitcoin Depot, alleging most of its revenue was derived from scams.

Another major sender of cryptocurrency to Bitcoin Depot was Cumberland DRW, the crypto arm of the Chicago-based trading firm DRW, founded by billionaire and famed trader Don Wilson. He made headlines last year when DRW invested $100 million into a Trump family crypto project shortly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped an investigation into Cumberland, according to the Financial Times. In a March filing, Bitcoin Depot named Cumberland, Gemini and other firms as its bitcoin suppliers.

Even after Gemini appeared to stop sending funds to Bitcoin Depot in March 2025, Cumberland continued to do so, according to experts who reviewed the transactions. These transactions lasted until March 30, 2026.

According to the experts ICIJ consulted, Cumberland is also a key provider of cryptocurrency to CoinFlip, which has been identified as the world’s second-largest bitcoin ATM operator behind Bitcoin Depot. Iowa’s attorney general sued CoinFlip last year, alleging that all of its top 20 crypto ATM users in Iowa, among many others, were scam victims.

An alert about bitcoin machine-related scams is included in a printed warning for staff in a Circle K convenience store.

“At best, CoinFlip is a willfully blind participant in the victimization of hundreds of Iowans,” according to the state’s lawsuit. “At worst, it is a silent partner to many scammers preying on Iowans.”

CoinFlip did not provide comment for this story. In an April filing, the firm’s lawyers said Iowa authorities have deployed baseless accusations in a “smear campaign” that has damaged its standing with regulators, legislators, consumers and business partners. The firm has denied that it enables or tolerates scammers on its machines and called the Iowa suit an “unmistakable assault on the nature of cryptocurrency itself.” CoinFlip said it requires its customers to read multiple fraud-related warnings and disclaimers when using its machines.

In recent years, Cumberland has sent CoinFlip over a billion dollars worth of bitcoin, according to experts who reviewed the transactions. These transactions were as large as $5 million apiece, the experts said.

Until mid-2024, CoinFlip also received roughly $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin from London-based trader Enigma Securities, according to the experts. Enigma Securities is a subsidiary of the Makor Group. Like Cumberland, Enigma Securities labels itself as a so-called crypto liquidity provider, giving businesses fast access to wholesale portions of various cryptocurrencies. Crypto ATMs have been effectively banned from operating in the United Kingdom because authorities have not granted a licence to any of the firms.

Enigma Securities did not respond to requests to comment on this story.

“We needed a lot of bitcoin and were linked up to exchanges to get that bitcoin every day,” said Meraban, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to charges relating to his firm’s licensing. “This is how the business model works.”

Enigma Securities did not respond to requests for comment. FalconX declined to provide  comment for this story.

ICIJ found that Kraken has played a key role in supplying bitcoin to several major crypto ATM operators in recent years, including more than $700 million in bitcoin to Coinhub and at least $245 million in bitcoin to Byte Federal, according to experts who reviewed these transactions.

Coinhub did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview with ICIJ, Byte Federal’s CEO Paul Tarantino said Kraken is the firm’s sole liquidity provider. “We have a really good relationship with Kraken,” he said.

Tarantino said that Byte Federal is a leader in anti-fraud measures. In early 2024, he said, Byte Federal began rigorously vetting all customers over the age of 60, resulting in 84% of those would-be customers being blocked due to scam concerns. He added that the number of those visitors to his company’s machines has recently fallen, however. “Scammers that get ahold of these seniors are making a decision not to send them to our kiosks.”

Kraken’s relationship with Athena Bitcoin, another top crypto ATM operator, appears to have expanded in late 2023. The exchange began sending the firm more than a million dollars worth of bitcoin each week on average until mid-2025, when the pace slowed, according to the experts.

Last September, Washington D.C.’s attorney general alleged that 93% of Athena Bitcoin’s transactions involved a scam, saying the firm “fails to provide effective oversight, creating an unchecked opportunity for illicit international fraud.”

An Athena Bitcoin ATM in Phoenix, Arizona. Image: Dominic Valente/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Following the legal action, Athena Bitcoin told a local news station that it “strongly disagrees with the allegations” and that it will fight the charges. The firm said it has “multiple safeguards, from prominent warnings and daily transaction limits to five separate verification screens designed to stop coerced transactions,” according to the report.

The day after the D.C. attorney general’s announcement, a Kraken account sent Athena more than $270,000 worth of bitcoin in a single transaction, according to experts ICIJ consulted. And Kraken accounts continued to send large amounts of cryptocurrency to Athena Bitcoin, amounting to about $17 million as of March 31, 2026, when the transfers appear to have stopped, the experts said.

Athena did not respond to requests to comment for this story. In a March filing, Athena Bitcoin called Kraken its “primary crypto exchange.” In a subsequent filing dated May 14, Athena did not mention Kraken.

In March, Kraken became the first crypto firm approved for a Federal Reserve master account, which allows the exchange to move traditional money directly via U.S. central banking infrastructure, a privilege never before granted to a crypto firm. Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a proponent of the crypto industry, called the approval a “watershed moment for the digital asset industry” and a “monumental step towards making payments safer, faster, and cheaper.”

Last month, the FBI released new figures showing that crypto ATM scams had recently surged, with Americans losing $389 million relating to the machines in 2025. These scams especially targeted Americans over 60, like Ann Tatem.

Tatem told ICIJ that the loss of retirement savings forced her to cash out her life insurance plan. “I just hope something can be done about those machines,” she said.

The event featured ICIJ chief reporter Sydney P. Freedberg and Serif Health health economist and senior director of analytics Bill Pajerowski. ICIJ digital producer Carmen Molina Acosta led the discussion.

Drawing on reporting with 47 media partners around the world, the Cancer Calculus investigation examines how pharmaceutical industry practices tied to patents, pricing and billing can drive up costs and limit access to lifesaving cancer treatment. The conversation included behind-the-scenes insights into the reporting, key findings from the investigation and why they matter, discussion of broader pharmaceutical pricing practices and an audience Q&A.

For your invitation to future events, please subscribe to ICIJ’s newsletter or consider making a donation to support our work.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/following-the-paper-trail-to-guatemala-to-uncover-what-records-cant-reveal-about-access-to-keytruda/

BEHIND THE SCENES Following the paper trail to Guatemala to uncover what records can’t reveal about access to Keytruda May 11, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/video-keytruda-merck-patients-patents/

VIDEO WATCH: How Merck keeps Keytruda prices sky-high Apr 13, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/unacceptable-lawmakers-react-to-revelations-from-icijs-cancer-calculus-investigation/

IMPACT ‘Unacceptable’: Lawmakers react to revelations from ICIJ’s Cancer Calculus investigation Apr 23, 2026

Recommended reading BEHIND THE SCENES Following the paper trail to Guatemala to uncover what records can’t reveal about access to Keytruda May 11, 2026 VIDEO WATCH: How Merck keeps Keytruda prices sky-high Apr 13, 2026 IMPACT ‘Unacceptable’: Lawmakers react to revelations from ICIJ’s Cancer Calculus investigation Apr 23, 2026

The departure of Kennedy, a daughter-in-law of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the latest in the senior echelons of national security agencies. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in March, breaking with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

Five people familiar with the matter confirmed Kennedy’s plans. One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Kennedy’s departure hasn’t been formally announced, said it involved, at least in part, her disagreement with Trump’s military involvement in Iran.

In a May 8 email reviewed by ICIJ media partner The Washington Post, Kennedy told colleagues she was leaving to return to the private sector. “Being a mom is God’s greatest gift, and after two years on the campaign trail and a year serving in this extraordinary Administration, I have to make sure my family has all it needs,” she wrote.

Kennedy made no mention of Iran in the email, which praised Trump. She indicated that this Friday would be her last day on the job.

https://www.icij.org/news/2025/10/arab-states-deepened-military-ties-with-israel-while-denouncing-gaza-war-leak-reveals/

Middle East Arab states deepened military ties with Israel while denouncing Gaza war, leak reveals Oct 11, 2025

https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2025/05/how-a-pentagon-contractor-built-a-global-empire-and-a-massive-tax-evasion-scheme/

OFFSHORE How a Pentagon contractor built a global empire — and a massive tax evasion scheme May 23, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/king-charles-godson-had-extensive-business-ties-with-a-us-defense-contractor-now-accused-of-a-massive-tax-evasion-scheme-records-show/

Accountability King Charles’ godson had extensive business ties with a US defense contractor now accused of a massive tax evasion scheme, records show Nov 12, 2024

Recommended reading Middle East Arab states deepened military ties with Israel while denouncing Gaza war, leak reveals Oct 11, 2025 OFFSHORE How a Pentagon contractor built a global empire — and a massive tax evasion scheme May 23, 2025 Accountability King Charles’ godson had extensive business ties with a US defense contractor now accused of a massive tax evasion scheme, records show Nov 12, 2024

The company has taken its network — comprising some 9,700 kiosks — offline, CEO Alex Holmes said in a statement on its website, and will cease operations.

Holmes cited “increasingly stringent compliance obligations, including new transaction limits, and in some jurisdictions, outright restrictions or bans” on crypto ATMs that have made the company’s business infeasible.

Local and state governments across the United States have tightened restrictions on the machines, which allow cash to be exchanged for cryptocurrency at an automated kiosk similar to a bank ATM. Authorities have opened investigations into crypto ATM operators in response to concerns that the machines had become an easy way for scammers to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.

In 2025, consumers reported to the FBI $389 million of losses to scams involving the machines, which can be used to quickly move victims’ funds overseas and beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/trump-administration-curbs-state-oversight-of-crypto-industry/

cryptocurrency Trump administration curbs state oversight of crypto industry May 15, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/massachusetts-sues-bitcoin-depot-alleging-the-crypto-atm-operator-knowingly-facilitated-crypto-scams/

IMPACT Massachusetts sues Bitcoin Depot, alleging the crypto ATM operator knowingly facilitated crypto scams Feb 26, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/retailers-keep-cashing-in-on-crypto-atms-as-scams-surge/

CRYPTOCURRENCY Retailers keep cashing in on crypto ATMs as scams surge Dec 17, 2025

Recommended reading cryptocurrency Trump administration curbs state oversight of crypto industry May 15, 2026 IMPACT Massachusetts sues Bitcoin Depot, alleging the crypto ATM operator knowingly facilitated crypto scams Feb 26, 2026 CRYPTOCURRENCY Retailers keep cashing in on crypto ATMs as scams surge Dec 17, 2025

Olena Oblamska, 42, also known as Lola Ferrari, is accused of being one of the four founders of claimed cryptocurrency investment platform Forsage, which prosecutors say was actually a Ponzi and pyramid scheme. Oblamska faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Thailand’s Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau arrested Oblamska at a condominium in central Phuket in February, but did not name her at the time. She was extradited to the U.S. in early May.

Oblamska made her initial appearance in federal court in Oregon before a U.S. magistrate judge on May 12. She was arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and ordered detained pending a jury trial scheduled to begin in July.

Prosecutors say she was the self-proclaimed “goddess” of a scheme that falsely promoted Forsage on the internet as a legitimate, low-risk and lucrative investment, before stealing about $340 million from victim-investors.

Dubai-based Russian Vladimir Okhotnikov allegedly directed, managed, and controlled Forsage’s operations. Okhotnikov, who also co-produced, co-wrote and co-starred in Kevin Spacey’s new film, “Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force”, fled to the United Arab Emirates, while facing criminal charges from the U.S. and Georgian authorities.

ICIJ examined Okhotnikov’s business dealings as part of The Coin Laundry, an investigation into how the crypto industry has profited from illicit financial flows while leaving most of those harmed in the process without recourse.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/holiverse-lado-forsage-cryptocurrency-scam/

CRYPTOCURRENCY The Russian crypto guru’s Hollywood gambit Nov 17, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/cryptocurrency-exchanges-binance-okx-money-laundering-crime/

CRYPTOCURRENCY Crypto giants moved billions linked to money launderers, drug traffickers and North Korean hackers Nov 17, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/elite-portuguese-investigative-unit-to-probe-spacey-movie-producer-with-ties-to-alleged-crypto-scammer/

CRYPTOCURRENCY Elite Portuguese investigative unit to probe Spacey movie producer with ties to alleged crypto scammer Jan 05, 2026

Recommended reading CRYPTOCURRENCY The Russian crypto guru’s Hollywood gambit Nov 17, 2025 CRYPTOCURRENCY Crypto giants moved billions linked to money launderers, drug traffickers and North Korean hackers Nov 17, 2025 CRYPTOCURRENCY Elite Portuguese investigative unit to probe Spacey movie producer with ties to alleged crypto scammer Jan 05, 2026

Following a recent reinterpretation of banking rules, federal authorities have granted some crypto companies special, slimmed-down national banking licenses that come with minimal federal oversight and immunity against a wide range of actions by state regulators.

The sudden loss of state authority over some major crypto firms shocked Linda Conti, superintendent of Maine’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection, which oversees licensing of money-transmitting firms.

“We will not be able to address consumer complaints,” Conti told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in an email. “We will not be able to ask any questions of these entities.”

After a surge in cryptocurrency scams, Maine began requiring crypto firms to verify the ownership of certain digital wallets their customers were sending money to. The rule was intended to prevent would-be victims from paying scammers, but Coinbase, one of the world’s largest crypto players, cried foul.

In a letter asking federal authorities to intervene last September, the crypto exchange suggested Maine’s new rule was unconstitutional and “threatens the very purpose” of core features of cryptocurrency that offer users deep privacy. Coinbase has since converted to a national trust charter bank, meaning it will no longer need to comply with this rule in Maine, according to Conti.

Coinbase is not alone in obtaining the new licenses that can curtail state action.

Through a records request, ICIJ obtained a letter to Conti’s office from the crypto firm Fidelity Digital Assets, which recently converted to a national trust charter bank, telling local regulators that the company no longer needed its state money transmission license. In the letter, lawyers representing the crypto firm requested that Maine update Fidelity Digital Assets’ license in Maine to “Terminated – Surrendered / Canceled.”

Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency arm of the investment management giant Fidelity, did not provide comment for this story.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/canada-revokes-dozens-of-crypto-firms-registrations/

IMPACT Canada revokes dozens of crypto firms’ registrations Mar 24, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/questions-swirl-around-us-plans-for-record-15b-prince-group-crypto-seizure/

CRYPTOCURRENCY Questions swirl around US plans for record $15B Prince Group crypto seizure Mar 18, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/as-crypto-industry-expands-u-s-slashes-office-examining-dirty-money-safeguards-of-cryptocurrency-exchanges/

IRS As crypto industry expands, US slashes office examining dirty money safeguards of cryptocurrency exchanges Feb 17, 2026

Recommended reading IMPACT Canada revokes dozens of crypto firms’ registrations Mar 24, 2026 CRYPTOCURRENCY Questions swirl around US plans for record $15B Prince Group crypto seizure Mar 18, 2026 IRS As crypto industry expands, US slashes office examining dirty money safeguards of cryptocurrency exchanges Feb 17, 2026

We arrived at Violeta Chuc Sam’s family home in the mountain town of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, on a breezy Saturday morning in February. Chuc Sam, whose vivacious personality matched the voice giving directions, greeted us at the door. A few weeks earlier she had agreed to welcome our group of journalists to learn more about her mother Francisca Violeta Sam Colop. We wanted to talk about Sam Colop’s long struggle with skin cancer and her fight to access the medication Keytruda.

This reporting trip was part of the Cancer Calculus, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 47 media partners, including the colleagues I was traveling with, reporter Jody García and photographer Laura Garcia from Guatemalan independent outlet Plaza Pública. Our team spent months examining the global consequences of the exorbitant prices of Keytruda, a novel cancer immunotherapy, known generically as pembrolizumab. It is the bestselling drug in the world, and has made around $163 billion in revenue for its maker, Merck & Co., since its U.S. launch in 2014.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Image: Laura Garcia / Plaza Pública

I first came across Sam Colop’s name last August in a 2021 court order granting her access to Keytruda, which she could not afford out-of-pocket. By the time I found her case, I’d already been reviewing numerous similar judicial cases and would go on to find dozens more in the months ahead. But Sam Colop’s case stayed with me. In 2012, she was diagnosed with advanced melanoma, the same illness for which Keytruda was used to put former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in remission. She was an Indigenous Maya K’iche’ educator, a poet and researcher, and an advocate for the preservation of her people’s language and culture. I got excited about the possibility of telling the story of an extraordinary person, beyond what the court records could show. But then, another result appeared in my search: a brief obituary, dated July 5, 2025. Sam Colop was present in the legal document but the possibility of hearing from her was gone.

Months later, I was in her living room, as her daughters Violeta and Marina, and her widower, Juan Chuc Xum, sat below a large framed photo of a stoic Sam Colop reminiscing.  Some of the books she authored — a K’iche’ and Spanish children’s version of the Popol Wuj (the sacred text of the Maya people) and her last collection of poems — were neatly arranged on a table nearby. I listened as they took turns telling her story. She was 65 when she died, but younger at heart, Marina joked. She loved to read, sing and dance, and always had a new project going on, Violeta said. She “always likes to be well put together,” said Chuc Xum, still speaking about his wife in the present tense. In 2021, an oncologist outside her government-run insurance system prescribed Sam Colop Keytruda, which by then was a standard treatment for advanced skin cancer in many countries. But her insurer wouldn’t cover the drug. Like thousands of people across Latin America, she had to go to court to force the insurer to do so.

Juan Chuc Xum (center) with his daughters Marina Chuc Sam (left) and Violeta Chuc Sam (right). Image: Laura Garcia / Plaza Pública

Despite the lack of transparency surrounding prescription drug pricing, our investigation revealed that the cost of Keytruda varies widely by country and even by regions and health systems within a country. A year of treatment can cost anywhere from $29,000 in Indonesia to $130,000 in Colombia, to $208,000 in the United States. In Guatemala, a country with modest income levels, the treatment costs nearly $11,000 per infusion every three weeks, or about $180,000 a year.

“Who could pay for that?” Chuc Xum told us, raising his hands, palms open, before answering his own question. “No one.”

Our reporting began far from the field. For months, we filed and sifted through hundreds of public records, analyzed global data and dug up court documents, to trace the real cost of Keytruda and the corporate maneuvers to maintain its high price and exclusivity. After finding hundreds of cases like Sam Colop’s in Latin America, I learned that a consequence of the high cost is that insurers and hospitals in several countries — with over-stretched healthcare budgets and little negotiation power with Big Pharma — largely won’t provide the medication, unless following court orders. The records quickly raised a broader question: What is it like when a medicine exists, but remains effectively out of reach for those who need it most?

I went to Guatemala to try to answer that question, where the lack of access to Keytruda for both insured and uninsured people seemed glaring.

Chuc Xum playing with his granddaughter on the rooftop. Image: Laura Garcia / Plaza Pública

When I found Sam Colop’s case, her family had been in mourning for just a month after her death. My colleague Jody García reached out to them and we patiently waited until they were ready to talk. The Saturday we visited Sam Colop’s family, they gathered at her house for the interview, as they used to do almost every weekend for family meals. But in a private moment, Violeta, the youngest daughter, told me that in the months since her mother’s passing, it had become rare for them to meet there. “It feels empty without my mom,” she said, almost in a whisper.

After winning her court case, Sam Colop received Keytruda for two years, though periodic shortages meant she sometimes went without treatment. Had she received the medication as scheduled, or even years earlier, her family wonders, would she still be alive? But as we found in our investigation, geography often shapes who has access to expensive and potentially lifesaving medication.

Marina said she finds comfort in knowing her mother prepared them in anticipation of her death, even leaving instructions in her final book of poems. Violeta said she still feels anger over her mother’s death and knows it will take time to accept it. Chuc Xum went down the list of habitual things he misses (seeing her at home, their conversations, going for a stroll — or for dinner — on a random weeknight) until he arrived at what he mostly longs for: growing old with his life partner.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/cancer-patients-legal-battle-keytruda-lifesaving-drug/

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OVERVIEW How Merck turned its wonder drug into a blockbuster — and priced out cancer patients worldwide Apr 13, 2026

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“A doctor alone does not prescribe that, it has an enormous value,” he told us, convinced there was divine intervention. “This is not human. This comes from above.”

Xum often travels hours from his hometown of Samayac to the public hospital in Quetzaltenango for cancer treatment. Image: Laura Garcia / Plaza Pública

Keytruda has shrunk Xum’s tumors, but he’s not in remission. He lives with side effects like skin rashes and constant diarrhea that sometimes force him to get off the bus to use the bathroom on long journeys, like when he goes to art festivals where he sells his products. Then he has to wait for another bus. But he is grateful to have the cancer under control, he told us.

My reporting in Guatemala was shaped by distance. The physical distance patients like Xum cross every few weeks to reach treatment. The legal distance in cases like Sam Colop’s, where access moves through court systems that can authorize care without guaranteeing its consistency.

In Guatemala, those distances are not abstract. There, we found what doesn’t come through in records: small, crowded oncology wards, hours-long travels on deteriorating roads, and the quiet endurance of families still wondering if they could have had more time with their loved ones.

The Tunis Court of First Instance will consider Monday whether to dissolve Inkyfada’s publisher, Al Khatt. The dissolution request is not based on a single claim but appears to be the culmination of a yearslong campaign against the organization, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

“What is clear is that the procedure fits a broader pattern of institutional censorship: using administrative and judicial tools to eliminate,” Oussama Bouagila, director of RSF’s North Africa office, told ICIJ in a message.

Al Khatt is a nongovernmental organization founded in 2013 to foster independent journalism and media literacy in Tunisia. It also publishes and partly funds Inkyfada, a longtime ICIJ partner that has contributed to several cross-border investigations, including the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers and the Implant Files.

https://www.icij.org/news/2026/05/us-bars-executives-of-costa-ricas-leading-newspaper-la-nacion-from-entry/

PRESS FREEDOM US bars executives of Costa Rica’s leading newspaper La Nación from entry May 06, 2026

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PRESS FREEDOM ‘Many journalists have left’: How post-election repression compounded press freedom fears in Venezuela Nov 15, 2024

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Over the weekend, Pedro Abreu, CEO and chairman of the board of Grupo Nación, the holding company that owns the newspaper, started getting messages from friends with links to local media reports. Three outlets claimed that he, along with four other board members, had had their U.S. tourist visas revoked.

“One of the media outlets even stated our names, our dates of birth, and the expiration dates of our visas,” Abreu told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, adding that he was in disbelief. “I checked my email, looked to see if I had any calls or anything, but I had no official communication. After a while, I searched on a U.S. government website, I put in my visa information and there I saw. It came up as revoked.”

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department has revoked visas of lawmakers, government officials and judges from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica over a range of accusations from organized criminal activities to “witch hunts” of Trump’s political allies. Costa Rica is the only country where the U.S. government has targeted owners and executives at media outlets. (In October, the U.S. revoked the tourist visa of the owner of a digital outlet who was under investigation for money laundering.)

The State Department did not respond to questions sent by ICIJ.

Costa Ricans are required to apply for tourist visas to enter the U.S., which grants them entry for years at a time. Five of Grupo Nación’s seven board members had their visas revoked; the other two hold passports from countries that allow them to enter the U.S. without one, said Fabrice Le Lous, La Nación’s editor in chief. “And there is one common denominator among them: that they were given absolutely no reason or explanation,” he said.

The Trump administration has used visas as a reward and a punishment in its efforts to persuade nations to accept U.S. deportees from other countries. In September, after Ghana agreed to take deportees, the U.S. lifted visa restrictions on the country. It is not clear whether the visa revocations in Costa Rica are connected to the April agreement outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves signed with the U.S. to accept up to 25 deportees a week.

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