Translated material
The Panama Archives found information about offshore companies of Ilham Aliyev’s family
The Organized Crime and Corruption Research Center (OCCRP) has published a series of materials on offshore companies owned by the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The publications are part of a global investigation based on documents from the Panama Papers.
According to one publication , Aliyev's daughters Leyla and Arzu, through offshore companies Globex International LLP and Londex Resources SA, control at least 56 percent of AIMROC, which receives 70 percent of the income from six gold mines in Azerbaijan (about the Aliyevs' involvement in Globex International LLP in 2012 reported ). Azerbaijani Radio Liberty
The same companies that own AIMROC, according to . the Panama Papers, own Redlock Estates Ltd, which was involved in a failed auction for the sale of 11 gold mining concessions in Kyrgyzstan in 2012
The OCCRP investigation also refers to the UF Universe Foundation, which existed in the mid-2000s. The company was run by President's wife Mehriban Aliyeva and head of the tax department Fazil Mammadov. According to the Panama Archive, the company's shares were supposed to be distributed, in particular, among Aliyev's minor children. The company owned 51 percent of the investment company AtaHolding. Now the same stake in AtaHolding belongs to Hughson Management, which in 2010 was managed by Arzu and Leyla Aliyev.
The Panama Papers also revealed that Aliyev's daughters own two offshore companies, one of which owns property worth £1 million in the UK. The specialization of these companies is unknown.
The fact that the Aliyev family may be connected to offshore companies is not new. A 2013 ICIJ investigation found that Aliyev, his wife and daughters owned or were associated with offshore companies. The Mossack Fonseca documents greatly expanded knowledge of this and showed new companies owned by the president's daughters.
- Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who collaborated with Radio Liberty and OCCRP and worked on an investigation into the involvement of the Aliyev family in corruption, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for tax evasion.
- The Panama Papers are several million documents from the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. The documents served as the basis for an investigation conducted by the OCCRP and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The results of the investigation on the evening of April 3 were simultaneously published by the media in several dozen countries around the world. Mossack Fonseca has been associated with businessmen, celebrities and politicians, including 12 former and current heads of state. The Panama Papers documents, among others, mention Russian officials and businessmen, as well as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.