As it became known to Kommersant, the Moscow City Court considered the appeal of the defense of a citizen of Great Britain and Kazakhstan, Fuad Huseynli. He, along with his alleged accomplice Azer Huseynov, is accused of embezzling over $215 million from the funds of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA). The criminal prosecution of the defendants was organized on the basis of materials sent to Russia by Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies. The accused and his lawyers did not agree with the decision of the court of first instance, which, at the insistence of the investigation, transferred Mr. Huseynli from house arrest to a pre-trial detention center. The Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the Meshchansky Court of Moscow, which stated that shortly before the transfer of the materials of the criminal case to the court, the Briton had repeatedly violated the prohibitions established for him when choosing the previous measure of restraint.
The criminal case, involving British citizen Fuad Huseynli and a native of Azerbaijan, now a Russian citizen Azer Huseynov, as well as other “persons not identified by the investigation”, was initiated by the Investigation Department (SD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on July 1, 2022 on the grounds of crimes under Part 2 of Art. 4 tbsp. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (misappropriation or embezzlement committed by an organized group on an especially large scale). Both were detained in Moscow. On July 2, Azer Huseynov was taken into custody, on the same day he was charged. His alleged accomplice Fuad Huseynli was detained on 25 August. Both were charged with misappropriation of funds from the International Bank of Azerbaijan. On November 24, 2022, the criminal case against Fuad Huseynli and Azer Huseynov was separated into a separate proceeding from materials relating to their possible but unidentified accomplices.
IBA started its activity on January 10, 1992 as a joint-stock bank. The head office of the credit institution is located in Baku. It is currently one of the leading banks in the South Caucasus region in terms of assets, client base and international operating portfolio.
According to investigators, in 2013, the defendants in the criminal case received a $4 million loan from the bank on false documents. Two years later, according to the materials of the investigation, without repaying the first loan, the defendants received another one, but already in the amount of $211 million.
The funds received from the credit institution, according to the investigation, were not returned by the alleged accomplices. As a result, in the final version, both were charged with two episodes of particularly large misappropriation of funds, and MBA was recognized as the injured party in the criminal case.
It should be noted that the names of both defendants have previously appeared in various stories related to commerce and entrepreneurship. In particular, at the end of February 2010, together with a certain Eldar Kurbanov, they established the Kirov Forest Company LLC, which was engaged in the trade in timber and building materials, as well as sanitary equipment. The firm was liquidated in September 2015. In addition, Fuad Huseynli appeared in the materials of the investigation related to the acquisition of an oil field by IBA in Kazakhstan through one of the Luxembourg companies. Azerbaijani law enforcers then suspected that during the transaction there were money laundering and signs of embezzlement. Former chairman of the board of the IBA, Jagankhir Gadzhiev, eventually received a long term in his homeland. Proceedings in the case related to the purchase took place in Kazakhstan as well. In addition to Mr. Hajiyev, Fuad Huseynli also appeared in the list of founders of the Kazakh company participating in the deal.
As for Azer Huseynov, on February 26, 2021, he was put on the wanted list in his homeland as a person hiding from the investigation. In Azerbaijan, he is charged with embezzlement (Article 193-1.3.1) and legalization of money or other property obtained by criminal means (Article 193-1.3.2 of the Criminal Code of this country). Having established that Mr. Huseynov is on the territory of Russia and received its citizenship, the Azerbaijani authorities sent materials to the Russian Federation for his criminal prosecution. Later, the materials regarding Azer Huseynov were combined into one proceeding with the criminal case of Mr. Huseynov.
Azer Huseynov, after being detained at the request of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was placed in a pre-trial detention center by the decision of the Meshchansky Court of the capital. Later, at the end of August last year, the court chose a milder measure of restraint for his accomplice Huseynli, limiting himself to house arrest. At the same time, he was even allowed daily one and a half hour walks. However, on September 23, as evidenced by the materials of the case, there was a failure in the detention regime established for the accused.
The investigator allowed the businessman to visit the doctor and return home at 14:00. However, the accused appeared at home only at 19:54. Mr. Huseynli committed a similar violation on September 27, and it was not known where he was this time.
As a result, already this year, after the expiration of the previous preventive measure, the investigation filed a petition with the Meshchansky Court to change the preventive measure for the foreigner from house arrest to detention in a pre-trial detention center. In her petition, the investigator indicated that Huseynli was accused of committing grave crimes, violated the conditions of the previously chosen measure of restraint, and under such circumstances, there is reason to believe that, being at large, he can hide or otherwise obstruct the criminal proceedings. At the same time, the investigator emphasized that the defendant is a foreign citizen and has sufficient funds to leave Russia.
The defense objected, insisting that the investigation allowed red tape, and the documents submitted by them to the court “have signs of inadmissibility and unreliability, their content contradicts the actual circumstances of the case and the established procedure for monitoring compliance with the measure of restraint in the form of house arrest.”
However, the Meshchansky Court took the side of the investigation and arrested the British citizen. The accused and his lawyers appealed this decision to the Moscow City Court.
In the meantime, the investigation of the 30-volume criminal case was completed, the 220-page indictment was approved by Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Anatoly Razinkin, and the materials have already been submitted to the Basmanny Court of Moscow for consideration on the merits. Taking into account these circumstances, as well as the arguments given by the investigation in favor of the arrest of Mr. Huseynli, the Moscow City Court concluded that “the previously established guarantees for the appearance of Huseynli, the established prohibitions and other aspects of his proper behavior cannot be fully implemented”, and left him in custody .
