In a surprise move, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank devalued the national currency, the manat, in 2015. But was everybody surprised? Did insiders know about the move ahead of time and did they position their own banks and businesses to profit from the devaluation while the Azerbaijani people suffered?
Friends and family of President Ilham Aliyev make free use of two luxury yachts worth US$ 59 million that are owned by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), the organization charged with managing the country’s oil wealth for its citizens.
Seven kilometers west of Moscow along the Rublyevo-Uspenskoye Highway, a three-meter-high green metal fence cuts through the cool pine forest. Behind the fence lies Mayendorf Gardens, a subdivision in the exclusive and secretive Rublevka community that is home to Forbes millionaires, State Duma deputies, and high-ranking public officials.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has spent billions on capturing the world’s attention to the European Games which end tomorrow in his Caspian seaside capital of Baku. He has spared no expense, including slapping plastic facades on tired buildings, building new roads and booking megastar Lady Gaga for the Opening Ceremonies. The best hotels are booked solid.
Ilham Aliyev’s family owns a 10,500-square-foot London mansion worth more than US$ 25 million. The house is on Hampstead Lane, in a leafy corner of North London – a cool oasis from the bustle of the central tourist zone.
From a distance, Azerbaijan may look like any other oil-rich country. Its capital Baku shines at night, thanks to the multicolored lights from newly-constructed futuristic buildings that evoke the architectural playgrounds of the United Arab Emirates.
On her first day of freedom, between CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and the Voice of America, Khadija Ismayilova made time to talk to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. She reflected on the experience of her 537 days in jail, the current situation in Azerbaijan and the Khadija Project, OCCRP’s response to her incarceration.
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova was set free after her final appeal hearing today at the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan two days before her 40th birthday.
Soon, it will have been a year since reporters for OCCRP and other organizations took a long, hard look at what is going on inside Azerbaijan’s prison system.
The following text is from Khadija Ismayilova's statement given today to Azerbaijan's Court of Grave Crimes in Baku.
Free speech is sometimes severely punished in Azerbaijan, a country where scores of journalists and activists are in jail because they dared to voice their discontent with the corruption and the theft of state resources by President Ilham Aliyev's regime.
Khadija Ismayilova knew she didn’t have to go to prison. But in her mind, her only other option was to exile herself from her native Azerbaijan.
The numbers alone are appalling: nearly 100 political prisoners. Dozens of attacks on journalists, stretching back nearly 15 years.
A letter was just received from journalist Khadija Ismayilova, confined in Azerbaijan.
Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, daughters of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, and their cousins Mirjalal and Mir Jamal Pashayev, own multimillion dollar properties in London.
The First Family of Azerbaijan has taken control of some of the country’s richest gold, copper and silver deposits through a network of offshore companies incorporated in the world’s most secretive jurisdictions, according to leaked Mossack Fonseca records.
Documents peel away three layers of secret ownership in a conglomerate and lead to gold mines and overseas real estate
The First Family of Azerbaijan has a majority stake in another gold mining consortium, the Seychelles-based Redgold Estates, according to leaked documents
In May of 2013, the government of Azerbaijan, via its State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), injected $750,000 into an obscure Texas-based non-profit, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ).
The rise of Brenda Shaffer as a scholar and oft-quoted expert in the field of energy politics illustrates just how vulnerable the American foreign policy establishment is to manipulation by foreign agents.
The Telecom giant admits its practices were unethical and maybe illegal but has taken few steps to fix them.
The imprisoned investigative journalist says this week's revelations of massive bribes in the Azerbaijani telecoms industry explain why no one would answer her questions--and why she is in jail today.
