Emirates NBD

Emirates NBD Bank P.J.S.C. is a bank registered in the UAE.[619] [620] Its majority shareholder is the Investment Corporation of Dubai,[348] a state-owned entity.[621]

The bank has provided accounts and credit facilities to a network of politically connected clients in Azerbaijan, including Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, the daughters of President Ilham Aliyev, and Tale and Nijat Heydarov, the sons of Emergency Situations Minister Kamaladdin Heydarov. Their link to the bank was contained in the records of Malta’s Pilatus Bank, which was shuttered in 2018 over systemic failures to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.[587]

Investigators who trawled through Pilatus Bank records found that, in 2010, the UAE company Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa FZCO—or Sofitel FZCO—had secured financing from Emirates NBD for the development of a hotel in Dubai.[341] Sofitel FZCO was ultimately owned by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva and Tale and Nijat Heydarov, and the financing was in relation to “the purchase of the land and the development for the Sofitel Project,” a reference to the five-star Sofitel hotel and spa on Dubai’s man-made Palm Jumeirah islands.[341] [551] [517] [5]

According to investigators, the team of Emirates NBD bankers who arranged the loan included Hamidreza Ghanbari,[341] who went on to become chief executive and head of private banking at Pilatus Bank.[341] Another former private banker at Emirates NBD, Farnoush Farsiar,[341] would go on to feature prominently in Pilatus Bank records as the manager of several bank accounts belonging to an interconnected network of shell companies owned by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva and Tale and Nijat Heydarov.[341] [11]

Investigators who examined Pilatus Bank’s files also found that, between March 2015 and February 2017, Sofitel FZCO sent a total of 163 million AED ($44.5 million) from its account at Emirates NBD to accounts at Pilatus Bank belonging to two UAE companies: Davinci Holdings Limited and Picasso Holdings Limited.[341] [433] [432] According to the bank’s due diligence files, Picasso Holdings was beneficially owned by Leyla Aliyeva, while Davinci Holdings was beneficially owned by Arzu Aliyeva.[341] The transfers from Emirates NBD were recorded as “OWNER PROFIT SHARE” and “OWNERS DISTRIBUTION” in transaction records.[341]

UAE company MIRK General Trading LLC, the property manager and rent collector for Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva’s Dubai villas and hotels, also held an account at Emirates NBD.[341] Between August 2015 and April 2017, MIRK General Trading paid out a total of 36.3 million AED ($9.9 million) from this account to accounts at Pilatus Bank owned by Picasso Holdings, Davinci Holdings, and Sahra FZCO.[341] Of the total 36.3 million AED,10.7 million AED ($2.9 million) was paid to Sahra FZCO,[011] [428] [427] and financial investigators concluded that it was “rental income from villas owned by Sahra FZCO.”[011]

Emirates NBD told The Sentry: “The bank is unable to provide any comment to confirm or deny any client relationships due to our internal policies and our regulatory obligations.”[1400]