ICIJ: Aliyev family used offshore funds to hide shares in goldmining firms

PanARMENIAN.Net - Relatives of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev have used the funds and companies registered in Panama to hide the share in mining companies and London property, the press release by the International Consortium of Journalistic Investigations (ICIJ) said according to FreeNews.

At the disposal of the consortium were the Panamanian legal documents of the company Mossack Fonseca, a suspect in the creation of shell companies and corporate structures to conceal ownership of assets. The press release did not specify the ownership structure of the Aliyev family, but the Azerbaijani leader has already become the focus of ICIJ three years ago. Then investigators caught him and his family in possession of secret offshore companies.

According to documents leaked to the ICIJ disposal, Aliyev and his wife Mehriban in 2003 acquired a company Rosamund International Ltd in the British Virgin Islands. Aliyev, who was quoted by the Director and co-owner of the company, at that time was a member of Parliament, and in October of the same year became President. According to ICIJ, the company had a legitimate legal status until May 2004. Aliyev thus violated the law prohibiting members of Parliament and the President to do business, said the ICIJ interviewed lawyers.

In 2008, according to the ICIJ, Aliyev’s daughter, 19-year-old Arzu and 23-year-old Leila, purchased the company Arbor Investments, LaBelleza Holdings Limited and Harvard Management Limited on the same British Virgin Islands. The first was allegedly registered to Arzu, and the rest to Leila. The deal was closed two months after the re-election of Aliyev for the presidency.

Back then, ICIJ could not name the occupations of these companies, but said that the leadership of Azerbaijan, apparently, have made considerable efforts to hide the existence of companies from the public.

ICIJ also referred to an Azerbaijani businessman Hassan Goozal. According to the organization, Goozal together with his brother shortly after his first visit owned at least ten companies in the Intersun holding, where Abdolbari was President and Hassan Vice President. According to documents leaked to the ICIJ disposal, Intersun received several large contracts from the state oil company of Azerbaijan, where Aliyev even before the election of the head of state was the first Vice-President. In addition, the company, owned by brothers Goozal, won the contracts for the construction in Baku and beyond, a total of $4.5 billion.