Children of former Azeri security chief acquired luxury UK properties
A string of luxury properties, including a £17m home near
Harrods, were acquired by the children of Azerbaijan’s former security chief,
an investigation has revealed.
Eldar Mahmudov was dismissed as national security minister
by a presidential order in 2015. No official explanation was given for his
removal.
Now, caches of customer files hacked from the Cayman
National Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd (CNBIOM) in November 2019, and subsequently
published online, reveal that Mahmudov’s family has built up an estimated €100m
business and property empire.
Almost all of its assets were acquired through companies
linked to Mahmudov’s son, Anar, 36, and his daughter, Nargiz Mahmudova, 31.
The files reveal that in June 2016 a compliance manager at
CNBIOM drafted an internal memo about a network of “connected entities” linked
to Britannia Group Ltd that were all Mahmudov companies.
“I have serious concerns about this a/c [account] and
overall relationship without even looking at the transactions,” the manager
wrote.
The following month, the bank filed a disclosure with the
Financial Intelligence Unit in the Isle of Man, citing the territory’s Proceeds
of Crime Act 2008.
Between October 2014 and July 2015, the bank, based in the
Cayman Islands, noted Anar Mahmudov had made deposits worth almost £14m into
Britannia Group Ltd’s accounts.
A joint investigation of the leaked data by reporters from
the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Finance Uncovered and
Transparency International shows that, among the properties acquired by the
siblings using the “connected entities” identified by CNBIOM, were two office
blocks in Poole and Bournemouth, valued at £13.5m.
The investigation also reveals that Anar Mahmudov holds the
deeds to a four-storey property in Pont Street, Knightsbridge, bought for
£17.35m.
Anar Mahmudov’s mother-in-law, Zamira Hajiyeva, was famously
found to have spent more than £16m in Harrods. Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev,
the chairman of Azerbaijan’s state bank, was arrested for embezzlement in 2015
and later jailed.
After Hajiyev was charged and Eldar Mahmudov dismissed,
CNBIOM shut down the Mahmudov-linked accounts. “It is now important that there
is full transparency and the source of wealth for these investments is
investigated,” said Duncan Hame, Transparency International UK’s Director of
Policy.
Lawyers for Anar and Nargiz Mahmudov told Finance Uncovered
that the family’s wealth can be traced back to an ancestor, Aslan Ashurov, who
made his fortune in the 19th century. They said the siblings’ assets were all
properly registered and accounted for and that Anar Mahmudov was a successful
businessman in his own right.
The cache of leaked documents included a letter explaining
that Anar’s wealth was derived from his aunt, Elmira Mahmudova, who established
an oil and construction firm in Baku.
The investigation found that the Mahmudovs also own
properties and companies in Majorca, Luxembourg and Lithuania.
CNBIOM said in a statement that “it is conscious at all
times of its responsibilities with regard to money laundering… and has always
cooperated fully with the authorities in relation to suspicious transactions or
criminal or regulatory investigations.”
The Mahmudovs’ lawyer was approached by the Observer but did
not respond.
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