Offshore legacy of Rovnag Abdullayev
Until February 2022 Rovnag Abdullayev he headed the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, where he received a modest official salary. At the same time, his son Rashad, at the age of 25, bought an ultra-expensive apartment in Grosvenor Square in London.
For the first time, OCCRP journalists managed to find an object of luxury real estate, which belongs to a family member of Rovnag Abdullayev, the ex-president of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).
Ravnag AbdullayevThe huge state-owned enterprise headed by Abdullayev until last year has been criticized for its lack of transparency and for enriching Azerbaijani elites, including, presumably, relatives of the ex-president of the company.
Rovnag Abdullayev, Azerbaijan’s current deputy economy minister, has no known sources of income other than his official salary.
However, from corporate documents that have come to us, it follows that his 28-year-old son Rashad owns an elite apartment at number 20 Grosvenor Square, a well-known building in one of the most expensive areas of London. He bought the property in 2019 for £17.3 million ($22.4 million) through an offshore company.
20 Grosvenor Square, LondonThis multi-story building was once used by the US Navy and General Dwight Eisenhower, who headed the Allied Forces Headquarters during World War II. In 2014, it was converted into a luxury residential building, which includes a wine cellar with a sommelier and a 25-meter swimming pool. Residents are served around the clock by the Four Seasons hotel chain.
“This building was the headquarters of Allied Army General Dwight Eisenhower.”As reported Last March, The Telegraph reported that well-known foreign businessmen, including Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought apartments there. It is issued to a company registered on the Island of Guernsey with a closed register of beneficiaries.
Last year, the UK adopted the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, which required all foreign companies with real estate in the country to provide information about the beneficiaries by the end of January 2023.
A Guernsey-based firm, Mount Street Investments PCC, filed a return just over a week ago. According to the documents, Rashad Abdullayev became its owner in June 2019. According to the UK Land Registry, Mount Street Investments bought the London flat in December of that year.
Rashad AbdullayevIt is not known with what funds they bought an apartment in Grosvenor Square. Rashad Abdullayev did not respond to requests for comment. His father, Rovnag Abdullayev, stated in a letter to journalists that he did not make any payments in connection with his son’s apartment and did not know anything about the origin of the money that was used to buy it.
According to SOCAR’s annual reports, the annual salary and bonuses of the president and about a dozen vice-presidents amount to less than $800,000, which means that London real estate could not be purchased only with Abdullayev Sr.’s official earnings.
According to Rashad’s LinkedIn profile (the page is currently unavailable), he got a job at SOCAR Trading, SOCAR’s marketing and development division, at the age of 16. He was a “specialist in trade and business development”. Rovnag Abdullayev called incorrect information from his son’s LinkedIn page and said that Rashad did not work for SOCAR Trading, but was an intern at another company associated with SOCAR.
Just three years later, while living in Turkey, Rashad founded a real estate investment and management company, as well as providing consulting services. Rashad Abdullayev also owned a restaurant in Bodrum for several years and was a co-owner of a network of gas stations in Georgia.
It is not known what he is doing now and how much he earns.
Public activists have repeatedly accused SOCAR, which controls most of Azerbaijan’s oil wealth, of extreme secrecylack of transparency and financial relations with non-public persons. OCCRP previously reported on attempts by two subsidiaries of the state-owned company to withdraw $1.7 billion from a major gas project, as well as likely insider enrichment schemes, including father-in-law Rovnag Abdullayev.
The same year his company bought the Grosvenor Square apartment, Rashad Abdullayev, then 25, had an incident that also shed light on his family’s vast fortune. OCCRP journalists confirmed that a $1.35 million wristwatch was stolen from Rashad in Ibiza, although this was denied by a SOCAR spokesman. It appears that Abdullaev wanted to hide his ownership of the expensive watch: OCCRP obtained a police report that was amended to indicate that the watch did not belong to Rashad.
According to some reports, Abdullayev was seen in London driving a rare Mercedes model worth over $300,000.
Last year the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev removed Abdullayev Sr. from the post of head of SOCAR and gave him a less influential post – deputy minister of economy. In April, Aliyev gave a speech and praised “active reforms” and “new management” that would help SOCAR become a “transparent international energy company,” perhaps hinting that he was aware of corruption at the state oil company.
When asked about alleged corruption in SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev answered reporters as follows: “I have no information and no interest in connection with the assumptions from your letter. The accusations against me are not true.”
The concierge service at Grosvenor Square confirmed that Rashad Abdullayev had an apartment there and promised to deliver the letter to his assistant.
Finchatton, the company that renovated the building, did not respond to requests for comment.
