Accounts at the International Bank in Luxembourg (BIL) played a “central” role in the transfer of funds diverted from Azerbaijan. This is demonstrated by an investigation carried out by the OCCRP consortium (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), which had already worked to reveal Luxembourg’s opacity in tax matters in the OpenLux case, in 2021.
In its publication, OCCRP states that the role of BIL is highlighted by a report from the National Crime Agency (NCA), the British FBI responsible for fighting organized crime.
The allegations highlight how millions of euros siphoned from the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), Azerbaijan’s state bank, were funneled to Europe, via Luxembourg, and used to buy luxury properties in the United Kingdom. United and in France.
A Luxembourg trustee at the heart of the system
At the center of this case is former IBA president Jahangir Hajiyev, who in 2016 was sentenced to fifteen years in prison by a Baku court for money laundering.
According to the OCCRP report, while he was head of the IBA, he ran a money laundering scheme known as the “Azerbaijan Laundry”, through which he helped transfer money Huge sums of money from Azerbaijan to Europe on behalf of the elites of the Caucasian oil state, host of COP29 this week.
One of his main intermediaries was Khagani Bashirov, a French-Azerbaijani businessman, who helped Hajiyev and his family funnel money from Azerbaijan to Europe and the United Kingdom through the Grand Duchy. One of the companies he used was called VES Consultancy. The latter is now in the process of being dissolved, according to the Azerbaijani business register.
But, between 2011 and 2015, at least 175 million dollars passed through the account of VES Consultancy at BIL, including 14 million dollars coming from the IBA, according to the NCA’s investigations, relayed by the investigation of the ‘OCCRP. An additional $450 million is believed to have flowed through other VES Consultancy accounts between 2005 and 2015.
Mr Bashirov controlled a network of companies around the world, but Luxembourg was at the center of his operations, with hundreds of bank accounts in the Grand Duchy, according to the NCA. He also set up a trust company in Luxembourg which, according to the NCA, was intended to facilitate the diversion of funds from Azerbaijan. This company, Fortrust Global, allegedly allowed the creation of shell companies and provided full control over their financial documents, making it easier to hide illicit fund flows. According to the commercial register in Luxembourg, the company Fortrust Global was renamed Vallis and Pontem Advisory and was deregistered in 2020, we can see.
OCCRP indicates that Mr. Bashirov has been charged with forgery, money laundering and violation of professional obligations by the Luxembourg public prosecutor.
BIL reacts
In response to questions from Luxembourg Timesa BIL spokesperson said: “As a responsible member of the financial community, BIL is fully committed to upholding the highest standards of compliance and transparency in all its processes, particularly regarding the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The prevention and fight against financial crime is an essential priority for the bank, and we strictly respect the sanctions regime and the AML-CTF rules (the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, Editor’s note).”
In 2020, BIL was fined 4.6 million euros by the CSSF for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering processes. At the time, the CSSF did not specify the details of the breaches, nor the transactions or the persons concerned. But BIL had stated that the fine stemmed from CSSF inspections carried out in 2017 and 2018 on clients from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Understand Russia and other countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Among which is Azerbaijan.
This article was originally published on the website of Luxembourg Times.
Adaptation and additions: Christophe Lemaire.
