Over the last three years, two top families in Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used dozens of secret accounts in Malta’s private Pilatus Bank to transfer cash into Europe and funnel millions of dollars into investments in luxury property, hotels, and businesses.

The flag of Pilatus Bank flies from its offices in Whitehall Mansions in Ta’ Xbiex, Malta. Photo (c): REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

TeliaSonera and Turkcell sold their stakes in an Azerbaijani mobile operator presumed to have been dubiously privatized by President Ilham Aliyev’s family which may have earned as much as US$ 1 billion from the corrupt deal.

The border guard who accused an Azerbaijani journalist of assaulting him while illegally crossing the border from Georgia failed to appear on Friday  at an Appeals Court hearing in Shaki.

More than a month into the controversial trial of journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijan court denied his request to attend the funeral of his sister and her two children and be released to house arrest so he could better deal with his loss.

The Kiton store in Vienna’s Golden Quarter.

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.”

An Azerbaijani journalist who disappeared in May off the streets near his home in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was next seen in custody in his native Azerbaijan, was put on trial Thursday for allegedly crossing the border illegally, carrying € 10,000 in undeclared currency, and resisting border guards, iFact.ge reported.

The head of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation pressed Azerbaijan on Friday to withdraw its travel ban on Khadija Ismayilova and allow the investigative journalist to travel to Sweden and receive her reward.

Khadija Ismayilova is an investigative journalist with Radio Free Europe and OCCRP. She responds to UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova’s letter to the Guardian about UNESCO’s relationship with her country’s repressive government.  Ismayilova spent 18 months in an Azerbaijani jail for her reporting about the ruling Aliyev family of Azerbaijan.

Khadija Ismayilova (Photo by  Aziz Karimov)

Only two days after she received the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was on Thursday presented the prestigious2017 Allard Prize for International Integrity.

A member of the German parliament and close ally of Angela Merkel received payments from Azerbaijan through a firm that lobbied for the regime’s better image, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Tuesday. 

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.

Authorities in Azerbaijan and Georgia are facing mounting criticism for their possible role in the apparent kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist who disappeared from Tbilisi on May 29 and was next seen two days later being led into a Baku courtroom.

Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli is brought to court in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 31 after disappearing from Tbilisi, Georgia, where he lives. (Photo: Reuters/Aziz Karimov)

Lithuanian parliament members urged on Wednesday the Azeri government to respect the human rights of two detained journalists and allow international monitors to observe their cases.

Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist, Afgan Mukhtarli, was kidnapped Monday evening in Tbilisi, Georgia, and reappeared in custody in Baku, Azerbaijan, beaten up and charged with smuggling and illegally crossing the border, his lawyer claims.

The Council of Europe launched an investigation on Tuesday into allegations that some of its members accepted bribes from Azerbaijan in exchange for favors, the BBC reported.   

A money-laundering trial set to begin in mid-April in Italy has shed light on a hidden offshore operation that may have contributed to a major human rights crackdown in Azerbaijan in 2013.

EPP Political Assembly, Marseille 2011 - Luca Volontè (Wikimedia Commons)

A major Swedish engineering company, Bombardier Transportation AB, is suspected of channeling millions of dollars in bribes to unidentified Azerbaijani officials through a shadowy company registered in the United Kingdom.

The President of Azerbaijan appointed his wife as his deputy on Tuesday, making her his successor in case he is unable to perform his duty, and this way cementing the power of his dynasty.

An Azerbaijani court has reduced the suspended sentence of outspoken journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was imprisoned in late 2015 for her reporting of corruption in the country’s ruling family. 

Azerbaijan's state-owned energy company, SOCAR, likes Turkey’s Tekfen Construction and Installation building company so much, it tried to buy into it in 2008.

Construction on Baku Olympic Stadium was classified by the government as an urgent project, so single-source procurement was allowed. (Photo Credit: OCCRP)