‘The Contract Factory’: Inside Danske Bank Estonia’s Money Laundering Machine
Investigators allege 19 bankers laundered more than $1.6 billion of illicit funds, some of it from a huge Russian tax evasion scheme and a Facebook phishing scam.
Investigators allege 19 bankers laundered more than $1.6 billion of illicit funds, some of it from a huge Russian tax evasion scheme and a Facebook phishing scam.
U.K. investigators tied Izzat Khanim Javadova, known as Mikaela Jav, and her husband to the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a massive underground money movement system often used by Azerbaijan’s elite. This is the first time a member of the president’s family has been linked to it.
A purportedly private Azerbaijani organization paid over a million and a half dollars to a US firm to lobby for the country in Washington. That organization was secretly funded by the Azerbaijani Laundromat.
A quarter-million dollars from the Azerbaijani Laundromat went to a US energy consultant of Azerbaijani origin who, for years, has lobbied in the interests of his native country in the halls of Congress.
A key player in the Azerbaijani Laundromat -- a slush fund and money-laundering scandal that has already led to the resignation of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe -- has gained a foothold in Vienna’s “Golden Quarter.”
The word jihad, usually defined as a struggle against the enemies of Islam, took on a new meaning six years ago when Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared 2011 the “year of economic jihad.”
The Azerbaijani Laundromat reveals payments in the same name as the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country.
Ali Nagiyev, 59, is a busy man. His job is to fight corruption in Azerbaijan, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Denmark enjoys a reputation for low corruption and transparency that is the envy of the world. But the country’s largest bank was a key enabler in the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a general-purpose money laundering scheme and slush fund used by the ruling elite in Baku.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat was a money-laundering scheme and slush fund used by Azerbaijani elites to disguise the origin of billions of dollars, purchase goods and services, and make secret payments to companies and individuals in the European Union.
The US$ 2.9 billion Azerbaijani Laundromat was comprised of four bank accounts belonging to four shell companies registered in the United Kingdom, although more may have been involved.
The core companies that power the Azerbaijani Laundromat -- through which more than €2.5 billion (US$ 2.9 billion) passed in just two years -- are Polux Management LP, Hilux Services LP, Metastar Invest LLP, and LCM Alliance LLP.
From 2012 to 2014, even as the Azerbaijani government made wholesale arrests of activists and journalists, members of the country’s ruling elite were using a secret slush fund to pay off European politicians and other influencers who spoke favorably about the country and its oppressive regime.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is the name given to a complex money-laundering operation that handled US$ 2.9 billion over a two-year period thanks to four shell companies registered in the United Kingdom.
Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske Bank, is alleged to have actively and knowingly helped highly questionable clients to elude the scrutiny of authorities, Danish newspaper Berlingske revealed on Thursday.
The European Parliament called for tighter anti-corruption measures on Wednesday and for an investigation into reports that Azerbaijan paid off EU decision-makers who spoke favorably about the country’s dismal human rights record.
A group of parliamentarians in the Council of Europe is calling for an investigation into reports that Azerbaijan bribed EU officials in return for nice reports about the country’s elections and human rights record.
In cooperation with Berlingske and several international investigative media outlets, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project has uncovered and thoroughly documented a complex money laundering scheme spearheaded by the Azerbaijani elite.