Queen's estate bought £67m London property from Azeri ruling family

PanARMENIAN.Net - The crown estate of the Queen of the United Kingdom has launched an internal review over a £67m ($91m) London property it appears to have bought from Azerbaijan’s multimillionaire ruling family – which has repeatedly been accused of corruption, The Guardian reports.

Details of the purchase are contained in the Pandora papers, which reveal how a network of offshore companies linked to the family and associates of the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, has traded close to £400m ($545m) of UK property over the past 15 years.

The property purchases include one building acquired for £33.5m in 2009 by an offshore company beneficially owned by President Aliyev’s son, Heydar, who was then only 11 years old.

The revelations raise questions about potential loopholes in the UK’s property registration system, and whether they prevent proper due diligence, even by a body such as the crown estate, nominally owned by the UK monarch and run by commissioners for the benefit of the nation’s finances.

A spokesperson for the estate, which manages £15bn of property assets, said: “Before our purchase of [the building] we conducted checks including those required by UK law. At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed. Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter.”

Aliyev has ruled Azerbaijan since succeeding his father as president in 2003 and has presided over a country that is frequently accused of human rights abuses, rigged elections and systemic corruption.

In 2015, a European parliament resolution called on “EU authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the corruption allegations against President Aliyev and members of his family”, following a series of stories by Azerbaijani investigative journalists accusing the first family of personally benefiting from state contracts and business deals.

In 2017, the human rights campaign group Freedom House also criticised the country for “widespread and pervasive” corruption in a report. “As long as the ruling elites continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the public purse, government anti-corruption measures will have limited impact,” it said.