The son of a Chinese-born Uyghur oligarch who colluded with corrupt officials to dominate the flow of Chinese imports into Central Asia acquired a former church in London which now operates as a mosque and Uyghur cultural center, according to corporate and property registry documents obtained by OCCRP.
Nur Muhammed Palvan is the son of Khabibula Abdukadyr, a powerful trade and logistics magnate who allegedly ran a vast smuggling and money laundering network, as revealed in a 2019 investigation by OCCRP, Kloop and RFER/RL. Abdukadyr was never formally charged.
A company owned by Palvan paid over $3 million for the church, located in the multicultural north London neighborhood of Palmers Green, in 2023. It was then reconfigured into the “Satuq Bughra Khan Mosque and Uyghur Islamic Education Centre” for an unknown sum.
Palvan now chairs the board of trustees of Izqilar, the Uyghur charity that runs the center. There is no evidence that Izqilar staff were aware of the origin of the funds Palvan used to purchase or redevelop the property. When reached by phone, a representative of Izqilar declined to answer questions, hung up the phone when a reporter mentioned Palvan, and did not reply to subsequent emails. Palvan and his father Abdukadyr didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The 2019 investigation into Palvan’s father, Khabibulla Abdukadyr, was based on documents and testimony from a former employee who admitted to laundering hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Abdukadyr and his extended family. The former employee was murdered in Istanbul shortly after speaking with journalists.
Alleged smuggling tycoon Khabibula Abdukadyr (right) with three of his brothers. His son Nur Muhammed Palvan, the owner of the London mosque, is not pictured.
The documents he provided before his death show that, while living in the U.K. under another name, Palvan received over $1,800,000 through the financial network allegedly used to launder the family’s proceeds. Under that name, Aibibula Nuermaimaiti, he also held ownership of major companies and assets linked to his father’s business operation, documents show.
The investigation also implicated a senior former Kyrgyz customs official who enabled the Abdukadyrs’ alleged smuggling schemes and received laundered funds. After a popular uprising ended his bid for electoral power, he was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to corruption under Kyrgyzstan’s new government.
But the Abdukadyrs’ business ambitions only expanded, and — as a subsequent investigation by OCCRP and partners revealed in 2023 — the family has invested heavily in the real estate projects across Central Asia, the Middle East, and the U.K.
The same month that investigation was published, Palvan bought the former church for £2.6 million (about $3.2 million at the time) using a newly registered U.K. company called Palvan Ltd. The specific origin of these funds is unknown, but the fact that Palvan has received funds from his father’s network raises questions about whether any were applied to this project.
According to a brochure about the project issued by the Izqilar charity, the former church’s main prayer area was to be “redecorated to the traditional architecture of the Uyghur Mosque Style,” and a separate praying area for women created. Photos on the mosque site show a completed renovation, and an event to “celebrate the opening of the UK’s first Uyghur Masjid” was advertised on Instagram this January. It now hosts daily prayers, as well as religious education and Uyghur language classes.
Aside from the mosque, the Abdukadyr family’s other London properties included a mansion purchased in 2015 for $6.8 million. Palvan also appears on its ownership documents.
The family also owns commercial and residential properties in London and Greater London, including the site of a planned — and still unbuilt — hotel in Ealing, acquired for over $27 million.
Reporters identified other international holdings belonging to the family, acquired for hundreds of millions, in Dubai, Turkey, and across Central Asia. These are mostly residential and commercial properties, but they include two more religious institutions: a sprawling religious center in Kazakhstan that cost $15 million, and a mosque in Bishkek.
