Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov privatized beauty
The government of Turkmenistan has built a modern aesthetic medicine center for $51 million. But shortly before the opening, it was secretly privatized and sold at a huge discount to a company related to the president’s family.
A new aesthetic medicine center worth $51 million was built in the southern part of Ashgabat.
The building rises above the neighboring streets, and its upper part resembles a giant mirror. At the opening of the center, a portrait of the man who gave the order for construction was hung on the facade – this Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedovwho at that time was the president of Turkmenistan, and now remains the national leader of the country.
In 2022, Berdymukhamedov replaced him as president son Serdar, but the ex-president is still very influential. The aesthetic medicine center, created with public funds, officially opened in October 2020. Berdimuhamedov himself was present at the opening ceremony.
According to state media, the new center is equipped with “advanced technology from leading global companies” and offers a wide range of beauty and wellness treatments, from weight loss programs to hairdressing services. Training courses are also held there. There are photographs of the center on the Internet: the luxurious interior appears to be decorated in marble and exquisitely lit.
What the public doesn’t know, however, is that just two days before the grand opening, the president signed another decree allowing the new building to be privatized without a tender. In a new investigation, OCCRP and local partners Turkmen.News and Gundogar show how the center was privatized and how it benefited the president’s family.
The center was sold to the Ashgabat International Aesthetic Medicine Center (AIATC). Its shareholders include companies that, as journalists have revealed in previous investigations, are backed by relatives of the president. And the head of AIATC traveled with the president and worked with one of his sisters.
The center’s construction cost was $51 million, but the president ordered it to be sold for 155,750,000 Turkmen manats—approximately $44.5 million at the official exchange rate. As a result, the state budget lost about $6.5 million. The AIATC was given ten years to pay.
The actual discount that buyers received may be much higher. The unofficial exchange rate is widely used in Turkmenistan. When the decree was issued, it was 23.6 manats per dollar. That is, the center could cost buyers only $6.6 million, which is almost 90 percent less than the cost of its construction.
The official exchange rate is 3.5 Turkmen manats per dollar Was installed by the Central Bank of Turkmenistan in 2015 and has not changed since then. AIATC and Turmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
Previous OCCRP investigations have revealed how the president’s family benefited from export of petrochemical productsgovernment orders for food imports and from privatization of the state mobile operator.Apparently, the services offered by the Center for Aesthetic Medicine contradict the unofficial initiatives of officials against bright makeup, plastic surgery and outfits that do not correspond to the authorities’ ideas about traditional national clothing. Since 2018, women who fail to meet these standards have often been harassed and could even lose their jobs.
At a UN committee meeting in August 2023 Vepa Khadzhievwho at that time was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan denied the accusations is that this campaign violates women’s rights. As evidence that women can freely control their appearance, he noted that his delegation included “beautifully groomed” Turkmen women.
Next week Radio Liberty service in Turkmenistan reportedthat police detain and question women wearing tight or short dresses, enlarged lips, false eyelashes or fingernails.
New owners
According to a leak of data on members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan (UIET) dated February 2023, AIATC belongs to a group of seven legal entities registered in the country.
Having studied the data on legal entities, journalists found out that two Turkmen enterprises that own AIATC are related to the ruling family.
The first of them, Ak Rovach, is listed in the UIET database as a “trading” company. In 2021, a company employee told reporters that Ak Rovach represents the Delanore company in Turkmenistan, which exports oil and chemical products. The Delanore company is owned by the nephew of former President Berdymukhamedov – Shamurat Rejepov. In addition, Shamurat is married to his cousin, her mother is the sister of ex-president Gulnabat Dovletova. Rejepov did not respond to a request for comment.
According to UIET data, at least as early as February 2023, Ak Rovach was led by a man named Amanguly Ataniyazov. Using an application that shows how other people’s phone numbers are recorded, journalists found that Ataniyazov is often listed as an employee of Shamurat Rejepov.
The second company that has a stake in AIATC is Nurana Bedew HK, led by Rustam Bekdurdyev. His brother Ibabekir married to another daughter, Dovletova. Bekdurdyev did not respond to requests for comment.
Nurana Bedew HK, founded in 2013, worked in various fields – from importing pharmaceuticals to exporting asphalt to neighboring Uzbekistan. The company even reportedly owned an Akhal-Teke racehorse.
The remaining shareholders, including a construction company and a law firm in Ashgabat, appear to have no connection either with the ex-president or even with aesthetic medicine. Only one of the companies was called “Convenience, Durability and Beauty.” It would seem that it should be associated with the industry, but according to the UIET database, it was renamed Sadak HJ last year.
How journalists obtained information about companies in Turkmenistan
The UIET claims to support the interests of local small and medium-sized businesses, but in reality the union is strictly controlled by the state. To engage in foreign trade or apply for government tenders, there is an unofficial requirement to belong to a union, according to two participants who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“No membership [в профсоюзе] there is nothing,” one Turkmen businessman told OCCRP. – Like in its time during the Soviet era. Without party membership there is no career growth.”
The website of the union, founded in 2008, states that its members represent almost all sectors of the economy – from agriculture and the production of building materials to advertising and shoe manufacturing. The union itself runs its own business school and publishes a newspaper, and also has trade missions in China, Austria and the UAE.
Director of the Center for Aesthetic Medicine
Although AIATC bought the Aesthetic Medicine Center, it is managed by another company registered in Turkmenistan called “Beauty and Aesthetics Center”. Its director is a doctor Gulya Annanepesova.
The UIET database does not indicate the name of the AIATC director, but it does contain the date of birth, passport details, registration address and telephone number. With the exception of the phone number, all this information matches Annanepesova’s data, which suggests that she runs both companies.
Little is known about Annanepesova. But she accompanied then-President Berdymukhamedov on official trips at least twice. In March 2017, they traveled to Qatar, and in November 2019, to Italy. In the lists of delegation participants, Annanepesova is listed as a cosmetologist and doctor. Annanepesova did not respond to a request for comment. She has received awards from the national leader at least twice. In October 2016 she awarded a medal in honor of the 25th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s independence. At that time, Annanepesova worked as a doctor at the state-run International Center for Internal Medicine, and among her colleagues was one of the president’s younger sisters, who worked as a nurse.
About a year after the opening of the Center for Aesthetic Medicine, Berdymukhamedov again awarded Annanepesova, this time with a memorial sign for her services to the development of healthcare in Turkmenistan. In the list of awardees she was listed as the director of the Gözellik estetiki merkezi center.
A source with personal knowledge of the family said Annanepesova is married to a man who played an important role in introducing strict Internet censorship in Turkmenistan. This Maksat Geldiev. According to the source, Geldiev worked in the Eighth Directorate of the Ministry of National Security of Turkmenistan, which allegedly deals with Internet censorship. Another independent source confirmed these data.
Maksat Geldyev was the head of the Eighth Directorate of the Ministry of National Security for ten years, and when cybersecurity was transferred to a separate department, he was appointed head there. He was then returned back to the Eighth Directorate to the post of deputy chief. We published the official’s mobile number – +99365702777. It was from this number that they soon began to write and call us. Geldyev warned in correspondence that such publications would only make the blocking more severe. He then offered to pay money to have the article removed.
Checking the information, journalists found out that the phone number, which in 2015 belonged to Maksat Geldiev, in the 2020 database was already assigned to another person, who, judging by his last name and patronymic, was Geldiev’s son. Journalists also learned that this person is registered at the same address as Gulya Annanepesova.
Geldiev did not respond to requests for comment.