MIRK General Trading LLC is a company registered in Dubai; associated with the MIRK group of companies.[131] [132] [133] [341] Manouchehr Ahadpour Khanghah, an Azerbaijani-Iranian businessman, owns 95% of the company, while his brother, Behzad Ahadpour Khanghah, owns the remaining 5%.[131] [132] [133] [989] The brothers are also the company directors.[131] [132] [133]
MIRK General Trading is closely connected to scores of luxury properties in Dubai owned by the children of senior Azerbaijani officials.[341] MIRK General Trading is the manager and rent collector for nine villas owned by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva on the man-made Palm Jumeirah islands, as well as for 16 villas on the nearby Jumeirah Islands that the Aliyeva sisters jointly own with the sons of Azerbaijan’s Emergency Situations Minister Kamaladdin Heydarov.[341]
MIRK General Trading held an account at Emirates NBD,[341] a Dubai government-controlled bank.[348] 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 in Malta held by Picasso Holdings Limited, Davinci Holdings Limited, and Sahra FZCO—three shell companies owned by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva.[341] [425] [426] Of this, 10.7 million AED ($2.9 million) was paid to Sahra FZCO,[11] [427] [428] with financial investigators concluding it was “rental income from villas owned by Sahra FZCO.”[11] 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]
MIRK General Trading has undergone several changes of ownership. Between March 2012 and February 2019, the company was owned by Mohammad Habib Saeed Abdulla Ali (51%), Manouchehr Ahadpour Khanghah (44%), and Behzad Ahadpour Khanghah (5%).[131] [132] [133] In 2019, Mohammad Habib Saeed Abdulla Ali’s 51% share was transferred to Mohamed Ali Abdulla Ahmed before being transferred to Manouchehr Ahadpour Khanghah in October 2022.[131] [132] [133] Kamaladdin Heydarov is a former manager of the company.[131] [132] [133]
