r/bellingcat

For years LeakedBB ran openly online, inviting millions of users to trade explicit images allegedly shared without consent. Bellingcat's Kolina Koltai with Michael Wright of New Zealand's The Press spoke on our Stage Talk podcast about how they traced a key admin through years of data.

Listen back by searching 'Stage Talks with Bellingcat' on podcast platforms: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/3070120/

Russian ships continue to operate out of ports in occupied Ukraine, watch the video to learn about one vessel we tracked and reported on back in June.

New European Union sanctions have recently been announced for two vessels (not including the one depicted in the video) that Bellingcat has previously reported on as part of Russia’s shadow fleet that has been smuggling grain from occupied areas of Ukraine. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202601848&qid=1786096309382

Alongside Lloyd’s List, we reported that the bulk carrier Krasnodar (IMO 9296781) had shipped grain from occupied Ukraine to Saudi Arabia in late 2025. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/12/12/russia-ukraine-saudi-arabia-import-smuggled-grain-shadow-fleet-peace-deal-trump-occupied-crimea-petrokhleb-kuban/

We also mapped the now EU-sanctioned vessel Irtysh’s (IMO: 9664976)  journey from the sanctioned Port of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10/23/russias-grain-smuggling-fleet-continues-undeterred/

Five other vessels Bellingcat has tracked using AIS and satellite analysis were sanctioned by the EU in 2025. The US Department of Treasury has sanctioned a further vessel we have reported on. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0068

Despite these measures, the grain smuggling operations still appear to be active around ports in occupied Crimea. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/2618/oj 

In June, we reported an expansion of grain smuggling operations, finding bulk carrier Grumant travelled from the occupied Ukrainian port of Feodosia in February to Benghazi, Libya. This is the second time a Russian ship has been observed delivering grain to Libya. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/12/shadow-fleet-russian-grain-stolen-ukraine-libya-ais-technique-grumant/

The Kinahan Organised Crime Group is a $1.5 billion transnational network involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling.
Six of the seven alleged key members sanctioned by the US government have lived in Dubai in recent years.
Now, Bellingcat and The Sunday Times have found that alleged leaders of the cartel have recently been granted renewed UAE visas.

Read our investigation here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/08/01/welcome-to-dubai-kinahan-cartels-visas-revealed/

The aircraft took off from a military airbase near Dublin this morning. You can track the flight back to Ireland here: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=4ca448&lat=53.307&lon=-6.442&zoom=7.2  

Our long-standing partner in coverage of the Kinahan cartel, The Times, has been documenting the extradition process. Daniel is the second key figure of the crime group to be apprehended in the Emirates following his high-profile arrest in April.  https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/daniel-kinahan-cartel-extradition-ireland-hpj8jjjq9 

Last week, we revealed that a new visa had just been issued for Daniel’s brother Christopher Kinahan Jr despite US sanctions imposed in 2022. And that key cartel members are still operating within the United Arab Emirates on expired visas. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/08/01/welcome-to-dubai-kinahan-cartels-visas-revealed/ 

Bellingcat's Kolina Koltai spoke alongside our partners The Press to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news programme, about our investigation into LeakedBB, a site that had over 2.3 million registered users, including some who distributed leaked nude photos and videos. https://theworld.org/segments/2026/08/07/investigative-report-traces-global-reach-of-revenge-porn-website

On Thursday, Kolina Koltai and Michael Wright of The Press will be in our Discord server to walk us through their methodology for finding a key admin of the site and answer your research questions.

Join us live, 8:15pm CEST / 2:15pm EDT / 11:15am PDT: https://discord.gg/bellingcat?event=1536297974986965082

After we identified links between the admin account and a New Zealand-based man and reached out to this individual for comment, LeakedBB appears to have gone offline.

You can read Bellingcat's investigation here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/07/16/leakedbb-crypto-entrepreneur/

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