Pandora Paper List in Azerbaijan - President's family The Aliyev children - Arzu Aliyeva, Heydar Aliyev, Leyla Aliyeva

  

Azerbaijan - President Aliyev

Leyla Aliyeva

Arzu Aliyeva

Heydar Aliyev

About

Ilham Aliyev became president of Azerbaijan in a 2003 election widely regarded as manipulated following the death of his father, who had ruled the country the previous 30 years both as communist leader and post-communist president.

The younger Aliyev oversaw huge increases in the country’s energy income, largely generated by two major pipelines transporting oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. He has de facto control over the state oil fund, which generates annual revenue of $9 billion.

His presidency has been marked by brutal political crackdowns and human rights violations, including the imprisonment and torture of journalists and dissidents.

Despite accusations of running a kleptocracy, Aliyev maintains close relationships with European leaders through what has come to be known as “caviar diplomacy”. The 2017 Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed how almost $3 billion linked to Aliyev was laundered through shell companies, with much of the proceeds spent on gifts for European politicians.

Other media Investigations, including ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks and Panama Papers, have shown that the Alivey family controls significant wealth in Azerbaijan and that the president’s three children also own properties in the U.K. and Dubai.

Political Career

• First Family of Azerbaijan (2003 - present)

Leaked Details in the Pandora Papers

The Pandora Papers provide a view of the startling scale of the Aliyev children’s luxury property investments. They were shareholders of 44 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands between 2006 and 2018. The records show the children owned five companies used to buy more than $120 million worth of high-end London properties between 2006 and 2009, many of which were later sold for vast profits.

Heydar Aliyev, the president’s youngest child, was just 11 years old when he became the shareholder a BVI-registered company that had just bought a $49 million office block in Mayfair, one of London’s most elite neighborhoods.

Seven months later, an offshore company owned by his older sister, Arzu, bought an office building just one street down. When the building was sold nine years later, the company recorded a $40-million profit.

And in 2009, a company owned by the eldest child, Leyla Aliyeva, bought a $13.5 million corner building behind London’s Oxford Circus, which has housed a string of businesses run by Aliyev family friends.

Starting in 2013, the children transferred shares in their offshore companies to their maternal grandfather, Arif Pashayev. The holdings were later transferred to a series of trusts based in the Isle of Man, a British dependency and secrecy haven.

Pashayev and two close associates bought further properties in and around London worth more than $500 million between 2006 and 2017, records show.

None of the Aliyev family responded to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.

Trident Trust began registering the Aliyevs’ companies in 2007 and remained the registered agent for the family’s companies for at least a decade.

The files show that even on the occasions when the children were named in Trident’s due diligence documents as “beneficiaries,” or owners, questions about whether they were politically exposed persons -- which should trigger enhanced reporting requirements -- were left blank.

Trident continued to act as the companies’ registered agent after several of them were transferred to a series of trust companies under the management of Suntera Global in the Isle of Man.

A spokesperson for Trident Trust said that each of its businesses was fully committed to compliance with all applicable regulations, and that it “routinely cooperates with any competent authority which requests information.”

Secrecy Broker

At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:

1. Trident Trust

Trident Trust is one of the world’s largest offshore providers. It is linked to nearly 100 politicians and public officials identified in the Pandora Papers. Here are some of the top political figures involved.