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Greetings From Amsterdam,
In this edition of OCCRP Weekly, we’re looking at Azerbaijan’s investments in friends and opulent real estate in the U.K. We’ll also be exploring some suspicious luxury property purchases in Dubai, the fallout of a crackdown on free press in Tajikistan and more.
Let’s dive into the latest on global organized crime and corruption.
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Luxury London Properties Linked to Family of Azerbaijan's President Are Hidden Behind an Offshore Trust
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In the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.K. rolled out the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, known as the ECTE Act. With it, secret foreign owners of U.K. property were made searchable for the first time in a bid to stem the flow of dirty money pouring into real estate.
Here’s how it works: Under ECTE, foreign entities that own or buy British land are required to disclose their beneficial owners in a new “Register of Overseas Entities.” In theory, a simple online search of the U.K. corporate registry run by Companies House should show the name of the person who owns the land — no more faceless offshore companies.
Sometimes it works: the Register shows for the first time that the daughter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev holds six luxury apartments looking out toward London’s Hyde Park.
But ECTE has a blind spot: offshore trusts.
OCCRP reporters and researchers from Transparency International UK, an anti-corruption advocacy group, recently re-examined 23 London properties that our earlier investigations had linked to the Aliyevs to vet the strength of the transparency policy and the resulting search data. We found that 10 properties the Aliyevs and their associates had purchased for $160 million were now in an offshore trust in the Isle of Man. Trusts are arrangements that allow an asset to be managed by one person for the benefit of another — often because they are underage or incapacitated, but sometimes for the sake of secrecy.
The Register only shows that the 10 properties are owned by the trust, not the name of its beneficiary. (Our reporting indicates the properties are likely still linked to the Aliyev family or associates.)
“For most of us, anyone can look up our property at the Land Registry and see who owns it, but if you can afford to use a trust, your ownership remains hidden from the public,” said Anna Powell-Smith, head of the Centre for Public Data.
That implications go far beyond the Aliyev family: About a quarter of companies on the Register of Overseas Entities are owned by trusts. And while the ECTE requires trusts to make their beneficiaries known to Companies House and tax authorities, that information isn’t available to journalists, transparency advocates or the public. An avenue for requesting information about a registered trust from the government tax department has only once led to information being released — and not everyone agrees that the information should be more easily accessible.
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Ahead of COP29, Azerbaijan Cultivated Allies in the U.K.’s House of Lords Who Praised its Leadership
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Azerbaijan has some friends in the British House of Lords — and it’s recently been working on making more.
In the lead-up to the COP29 climate conference in Baku last month, the host country and a local non-profit with ties to its government paid for three members of the House of Lords to visit Azerbaijan, OCCRP reporting found.
There’s no evidence that the lobbying broke any U.K. parliamentary rules as the trips and relationships were disclosed in the register of interests. But the country’s efforts to build ties with British parliamentarians do appear to have been effective: Baroness Scotland even called Azerbaijan “the voice of those who are not usually heard” at an event in Baku in the lead-up to the climate conference.
Human rights watchdogs, meanwhile, are concerned these endorsements are helping Azerbaijan evade scrutiny for abuses.
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Two Years After Protest Crackdown, Tajik Journalists Have Gone Into Exile. Here’s What’s Lost When Journalists Flee.
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After a local youth leader died in police custody in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan, home to Tajikistan’s Pamiri minority, residents poured into the streets in spring 2022 in peaceful protest. Tajik security forces launched what they called an “anti-terrorism operation,” violently cracking down on crowds. Rubber bullets and tear gas were used to disperse demonstrators. Some 40 people died in the clashes; another 200 were detained and tortured.
Independent journalists, bloggers and activists documented the violence with photos and videos. The government soon shut down internet access in Gorno-Badakhshan, but it didn’t stop Tajik reporters abroad from detailing the deaths and suppression of protesters.
Since then, independent local journalism from inside the country has almost been eradicated in an escalation of a long-running assault on the free press. At least six journalists, bloggers and videographers have been sentenced to severe prison terms ranging from seven to 21 years for covering the demonstrations. They range in age from their 20s to 60s.
Others have fled the country, choosing a life of exile alongside Tajik reporters who left before them. Entire outlets have been shuttered or moved out of country. Even journalists who covered the protests from outside Tajikistan face criminal charges for their work — including former BBC reporter and native of Gorno-Badakhshan, Anora Sarkorova. Remaining family members are often threatened and interrogated.
While working abroad allows Tajik journalists to speak freely, multiple factors — from cost of living to lack of direct access to sources — make reporting from afar difficult. The Center to Protect Journalists reports that just 20 percent of reporters it has assisted continue in journalism after going into exile.
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The Cost of Truth: Life in Exile for Tajik Journalists
Azda.tv Editor-in-Chief Muhamadjon Kabirov and reporter Makhmadali Firuzi have been living in exile for years. In an OCCRP Unreported video this week, they spoke about the threat of torture and imprisonment for fabricated crimes if they were to return home.
Even while abroad, Kabirov said the safety of his team remains a key focus: He is fixated on selecting secure places to work in populated areas, changing home addresses regularly, and remaining aware of surroundings in public.
While living abroad enables them to continue dogged investigative journalism, it also comes with challenges. The ruling Tajik government has banned exiled media and cracked down on local media who collaborate with those in exile, said Kabirov.
Firuzi meanwhile worries about the stories that can’t be seen from afar.
“When journalists work abroad, many stories about the real lives of people, corruption schemes, human rights violations and persecution of dissent go unnoticed,” he said. While he lauds his home country’s rich culture, traditions and landscapes, “it suffers from corruption and the suppression of free speech and dissent. The prisons are filled with journalists, opposition members, activists and human rights defenders.”
Firuzi said he someday hopes to report on issues in the country’s prison system, including corruption and torture. “Journalists help uncover these problems so that citizens can demand justice and change,” he said.
Watch the video →
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Belgian Money Laundering Investigation Overlaps With Ukraine War Profiteering Probe
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Belgian prosecutors have seized about $2 million as part of an investigation into Iryna Kut and her Antwerp-based diamond company.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, authorities raided Kut’s warehouses while investigating an alleged case of war profiteering that has already cost a defense minister his job. A handful of companies are suspected of selling food to the military at two or three times their market value in 2022 and 2023 while Ukraine was fending off the full-scale Russian invasion.
Kut has not been charged in either Belgium or Ukraine, and it’s unclear if the cases are connected. However, people close to the cases told OCCRP that officials from the two countries have been in touch.
Reporters followed the paper trail to a third country: Croatia. Authorities allege Kut’s mother, Tetiana Hlyniana, controlled some of the companies that have come under scrutiny in Ukraine. Property records show that, as the food scandal broke back home, she was snapping up some choice real estate in the Croatian coastal city of Split, including three hotels.
Hlyniana’s lawyer told reporters his client was cooperating with Ukrainian authorities, and that there is no evidence of her involvement in any offenses. Through her lawyer, Kut declined to comment on the money laundering investigation in Belgium, and whether she had any role in the food scandal in Ukraine.
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Updates From Dubai Unlocked
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The Grandson of Tajikistan's President Bought a Dubai Apartment at Age 9. Where Did the Money Come From?
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Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s grandson got his start in real estate as a small child. At nine years old, Erajjon Gulov bought a three-bedroom beachfront flat in Dubai in 2015 that today is valued at more than $1.3 million. It brings in $55,000 in rental income every year.
The revelation comes from leaked real estate records reviewed by OCCRP and Azda.tv reporters. The records are part of the Dubai Unlocked data leak revealing the identities of hundreds of thousands of people with luxury properties in the Gulf emirate city.
It’s not clear how much Gulov paid for the apartment originally, or how his parents could have afforded it: His mom was not known to have formal employment at the time, and his dad was the head of consular services at the Tajik Embassy in Moscow. Public Tajik officials are not required to disclose salaries or tax returns — but in 2022 the highest salary on a list of Foreign Ministry jobs was $200 a month.
What is clear is that he comes from a family with deep political history — and a record of corruption and nepotism among democracy watch dogs. Some experts say acquiring property in the name of a child can help hide illicit gains or evade tax liabilities. Neither Gulov nor his parents responded to a request for comment.
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EXCLUSIVE: Singapore Money Laundering Suspects Spent Lavishly on Dubai Real Estate
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Three new suspects in an investigation of a vast Singapore-based money laundering network also had an eye for the Dubai real estate market. In this case, they bought 22 Dubai properties worth at least $28 million in just a handful of years, OCCRP reporting found.
Chinese-born Wang Bingang, Chen Zhiqiang, and Ke Wendi are among 17 recently announced suspects in the Singaporean probe of billions reaped from illegal gambling and cyberfraud. Leaked Dubai property records obtained by OCCRP show most of their real estate deals took place between 2021 and 2023, when the Singapore-based money laundering ring was active. Their whereabouts are unknown.
Meanwhile, Singaporean police have confiscated about $1.37 billion in assets from 15 of the 17 new suspects. These revelations follow a Singapore court’s conviction of 10 other members of the syndicate, and the seizure last year of $1.32 billion in cash, cryptocurrencies, and assets ranging from jewelry to luxury real estate. Some of those convicted had themselves bought some $30 million in Dubai real estate and nearly $60 million in London, OCCRP previously reported.
Read the full story, and explore OCCRP’s recent Dubai Unlocked investigation into how the city’s real estate sector has been flooded with suspicious funds.
We’ll be taking a few weeks off from OCCRP Weekly. More from us in the new year.
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P.S. Thanks for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply to this email with feedback, thoughts, or questions.
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