{"id":34838,"date":"2017-09-04T16:40:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T14:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/?p=34838"},"modified":"2017-09-07T16:57:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T16:57:26","slug":"bulgarian-connection-husband-of-unesco-director-general-exposed-in-azerbaijani-laundromat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-connection-husband-of-unesco-director-general-exposed-in-azerbaijani-laundromat.html","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Connection: Husband of UNESCO Director General Exposed in \u201cAzerbaijani Laundromat\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a large secret slush fund used by the Azerbaijani ruling elite to pay European politicians, for luxury purchases, money laundering and personal gains of people close to the Baku regime. This is revealed in a journalistic investigation based on bank documents obtained by Danish daily Berlingske<\/a><\/em> <\/strong>and shared with investigative reporters within the frame of their project \u201cAzerbaijani Laundromat\u201d<\/strong>. Bivol <\/strong>is the Bulgarian partner in the project, together with the OCCRP<\/a>, Le Monde<\/a>, The Guardian<\/a>, Suddeutsche Zeitung<\/a><\/em> and other leading European media.<\/p>\n

Important politicians in the scheme include German parliamentarian Eduard Lintner<\/strong>, Italian lawmaker Luca Volonte<\/strong>, who is being investigated in Italy for trading influence and money laundering in relation to these payments, Slovenian nationalist, Jelincic Plemeniti<\/strong> and Kalin Mitrev<\/strong> – a Bulgarian representative to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and husband of Bulgarian politician and Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.<\/p>\n

The money came from accounts of four paper companies in the Estonian affiliate of Danske Bank<\/strong>. A huge cash flow of EUR 2.5 billion<\/strong>, mainly provided by the State International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the Russian Rosoboronexport and other companies linked to the family of President Ilham Aliyev<\/strong>, has been diverted to these companies.<\/p>\n

Journalists working on the project examined in the course of several months over 16,000 transactions of Metastar Invest, Hilux Services, Polux Management and LCM Alliance. The companies are registered in England and Scotland by straw persons but are managed directly from Azerbaijan. Journalists from the Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP) tracked down the on-paper director of Hilux and Polux, Maharam Ahmadov. He is registered as a refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh and lives in miserable conditions for a man running companies with hundreds of millions in foreign accounts.<\/p>\n

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Payments to and from these companies reveal a complex and opaque financial scheme that is probably just the tip of the iceberg embedded in Baku’s central power. The investigation, called Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/strong>, is one of the most significant cross-border journalistic investigations in recent years. It is, in a sense, a continuation of the Russian Laundromat<\/a> investigation through which over USD 20 billion has been syphoned from Russia, as the same protagonists can be found there.<\/p>\n

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THE BULGARIAN CONNECTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

About EUR 800,000 from the Azerbaijani billions has reached Bulgarian companies and individuals. <\/strong>There are 19 transfers to Bulgarian banks, dated from August 2012 to October 2014. Nine of them came from Metastar Invest, followed by Hilux Services with seven transfers and three transfers from the Estonian account of Polux Management.<\/p>\n

The best known among the beneficiaries is the Bulgarian EBRD representative Kalin Mitrev, husband of Irina Bokova. <\/strong>He has received eight transfers<\/strong> in Swiss and Bulgarian bank accounts registered under his name for a total of EUR 425,000<\/strong>. The money has been wired to him by three of the four paper companies from the Azerbaijani Laundromat – Polux, Hilux and Metastar.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Mitrev is the Bulgarian connection having received the largest lump sum \u2013 EUR 225,000 in his Swiss account from Metastar Invest on February 8, 2013. In his Bulgarian account, he has received one transfer in the amount of EUR 40,000 on February 11, 2014.<\/p>\n

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Metastar Invest’s Office in Baku. Photo: OCCRP<\/p><\/div>\n

The Laundromat companies have made legitimate payments as well. Bulgarian football player Petar Zlatinov, then playing for Inter Baku, has received one of his salaries from Metastar Invest. Payments in the amount of EUR 60,000 have been made to Kronospan Bulgaria for delivery of fiberboards; to Trakiya Glass in the amount of EUR 100,000 for glass products; EUR 65,000 for canned vegetables to the company Konex-Tiva, two small payments for a total of EUR 3,600 to the company Kaolin and payments for transport services provided by the logistic companies M + M Air Cargo, MS Shipping and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics.<\/p>\n

Our attempts to obtain information with whom the contracts for these supplies have been signed were unsuccessful all across. We received detailed responses only from the Bulgarian company Konex-Tiva and the international transport company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics.<\/p>\n

Konex-Tiva<\/strong> said Metastar’s payments were in relation to an order for canned vegetables from Ecoterm LLC, based in Baku, Azerbaijan. All paperwork for the bills and customs clearance of exports was in accordance with Bulgarian legal requirements, they specified.<\/p>\n

Wallenius<\/strong> has received four transfers from Metastar Invest for a total of about EUR 60,000. The money was transferred in 2012 and 2013 for the transport Chevrolet automobiles. Representatives from the company\u2019s headquarters responded to Bivol’s questions, saying they were starting an internal investigation into the transactions. A few days later, another answer was received, explaining that the Bulgarian branch of Wallenius had been sold a few years ago and the information on its accounts was no longer available. The company’s current accounts have no data about these contracts, and Metastar Invest is not included in the company’s customer database, the Head of the Corporate Communications Department, Anna Larson, wrote.<\/p>\n

Football player Petar Zlatinov also answered our questions. He said that he did not know why his salary was transferred to him by Metastar Invest. According to him, all payments under his contract with Inter Baku came from the IBA, which was the owner of the club. The latter is a well-known fact and the nickname of the Inter Baku players is “The Bankers”. Links of the IBA with other companies in the \u201cLaundromat\u201d can be found further in the text.<\/p>\n

“Caviar diplomacy” and the price of a pretty word<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time when money from the Baku slush fund was poured into the accounts of European politicians and high-ranking officials, the Azerbaijani government made mass arrests of journalists and civil rights activists. Our colleague, journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who dared to investigate the first family’s wealth, spent months in detention on trumped-up charges. At the same time, Mehriban Aliyeva, the wife of dictator Ilham, enjoyed special honors by UNESCO, the organization run by Kalin Mitrev\u2019s spouse.<\/p>\n

As early as 2010, Bokova bestowed on Aliyeva one of the highest honors of the organization \u2013 the Mozart medal<\/strong>. Bokova’s visits with the kleptocrats in Baku and the visits of Aliyeva and other officials to Paris alternated several times a year (see table). Meanwhile, the payments to Bokova\u2019s husband coincide in time with some of the official UNESCO events organized in honor of the Caspian state.<\/p>\n

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Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva (L) and Irina Bokova (C), Director-General of UNESCO, arrive at the Leaders’ Forum session during the 36th session of UNESCO?s General Conference in Paris October 26, 2011. REUTERS\/Benoit Tessier<\/p><\/div>\n

On October 16, 2013, Bokova sent an official letter<\/a> with “heartfelt congratulations” to President Aliyev for his \u201cresounding victory\u201d in the elections. This victory was also due to the fact that Aliyev imprisoned human rights activists and critics of his regime in the eve of the elections on fabricated charges of illegal drug possession. After the election, the arrests became even more frequent. However, there is not even one word about these political repressions in Bokova’s letter.<\/p>\n

A week later, on October 22, Bokova opened a photo exhibit at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris titled “Azerbaijan – Land of Tolerance”. The exhibit was organized by the “Heydar Aliyev Foundation”, chaired by first lady Mehriban Aliyeva – Honorary Ambassador of UNESCO. This cultural event aimed at building a positive image of the Baku regime before Western partners and mitigating criticism of the numerous and increasingly scandalous human rights violations.<\/p>\n