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Almost £ 14 million ($ 19.3 million) was funneled into British bank accounts controlled by the son of former Deputy Energy Minister Suleyman Javadov and his wife. Among the 21 companies that transferred the assets are Rovers Production and Tourism Ltd., which transferred female models to the Spanish party island of Ibiza in a private plane. It turned out that the accounts of another company were managed by a dentist living in Belgium.
July 7 National Crime Agency (NCA) legal documents released by a London court provide the most comprehensive report to date on how dirty money was allegedly laundered in the UK, using a scheme known as Laundromat of Azerbaijan, which helped launder about $ 3 billion in cash. . The documents also mention the role of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank A / S and the Latvian ABLV Bank AS in transferring money to the UK. The documents were released after the Javadov family agreed to pay £ 4 million to complete the NCA investigation.
These companies “played no role other than to disguise and disguise the origin of the money they received,” NCA attorney Jonathan Hall told the court.
At the court hearing, Hall said that the NCA had initially tried to seize £ 6.4 million, but on the eve of the trial had decided to reach an amicable agreement with Suleyman Javadov and his wife, Izzat Khanim Javadova, cousin of the President of Azerbaijan. . The leaders did not acknowledge the crime and their lawyers emphasized in a statement that the couple “were involved in legitimate business affairs and expected their money transfers to the banks to be processed in accordance with the law.”
The couple admitted that the money was transferred through “temporary” accounts, which prosecutors had identified as part of the laundry, but denied knowing that the money was laundered, said their attorney James Lewis.
By deciding to settle the case amicably, the NCA inadvertently highlighted some issues related to the UK’s “dirty money problem”, said Susan Hawley, who heads the UK group Spotlight on Corruption. By making criminal proceedings civil and thereby reducing the burden of proof required, “law enforcement authorities are trying to treat cases in at least this way.”
A crime agency document prepared late last year before the court hearing was published at the request of the London Evening Standard newspaper, which unmasked the couple after a lengthy court battle.
Relations with the Baltic States
The documents reveal the funds in the accounts of UK banks, including Banco Santander SA and the private bank Coutts & Co., through hundreds of transactions from the Estonian branch of Danske Bank or ABLV Bank, which was once the third Latvia’s largest bank. bank before closing it on suspicion of money laundering.
Denmark’s largest lender, Danske Bank, is still under investigation in the US and Europe for failing to monitor the billions of euros flowing into Europe through its Estonian branch. Investors expect fines that Bloomberg Intelligence estimates could reach $ 1 billion in the United States alone.
Danske Bank declined to comment based on the ongoing investigations. Coutts also declined to comment. A Santander spokesperson said the bank could not comment on individual cases, but added that it “takes its responsibility in the fight against money laundering, corruption and tax evasion very seriously.” The bank “will report any suspicious activity to law enforcement and regulatory authorities,” the spokesman said.
Leaders for the six-year term to 2018. In January, NCA reported that it received £ 1.6 million from Seychelles-based Rovers Production through ABLV, based on six orders. 2014 The firm flew a group of men and five young mannequins to Ibiza, the NCA added. I. Javadova, who has worked on this Spanish island under the great pseudonym Mikaela Jav for several summer seasons, began organizing concerts in 2014, according to an online database.
Rovers Production could not be found or contacted in the Seychelles business register. The managers do not know who controls the company and they did not participate in the charter flight, said one of their lawyers, Sonia Ahmad.
Another company no longer operating is UK-based Crosspark Lines LLP, which shipped 48 orders to the Javadov family via Estonia. The name of the person who carried out the assignments was named Ali Moulaye and he was “associated with a Belgian-based dentist,” according to the NCA.
The couple’s lawyer said Javadov had no knowledge of Crosspark or links to the company because “they should not be expected to know the routes of money entering their accounts in the UK.”
Attempts to contact Mr. Moulaye failed. 2018 When asked about his role with other fictitious British companies, Buzzfeed told the news organization that he had signed “many things, many times” with his friends in Latvia.
Suleyman Javadov, interviewed by the NCA, could not explain the role of some of the 21 companies involved in the fund transactions. He told investigators: “Everything is disgusting to me,” the NCA court documents read.
The agency said it believed that Javadova would claim that the money was transferred through an informal ordering system that is often used in the Muslim world and is called “hawala.” The network is used primarily for legitimate purposes, but the NCA said it can also be used by those “who may attempt to introduce and integrate criminal assets into an (otherwise) legitimate banking system.”
Following the court settlement, the NCA said it would continue to investigate other individuals who may have benefited from the money laundering operation.
“Those who used Azerbaijan’s laundromat should not sleep easy as their property could be recovered in the UK,” said Andy Lewis, the agency’s director of property management.
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