Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa FZCO

Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa FZCO—or Sofitel FZCO—was a company registered in the UAE.[420] Sofitel FZCO was ultimately owned by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, via Sahra FZCO, and by Tale and Nijat Heydarov, sons of Azerbaijan’s Emergency Situations Minister Kamaladdin Heydarov, via Shams al Sahra FZCO.[668] [341] [5] [8]

It is one of several UAE companies linked to the five-star Sofitel hotel and spa located on the man-made Palm Jumeirah islands in Dubai.[341] [668] When Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva became clients of Malta’s Pilatus Bank, the hotel was described as their source of wealth, along with the Yassat Gloria Hotel Apartments, a 41-story hotel in central Dubai now known as Mercure Barsha Heights.[11] [668] Investigators found evidence that, in 2010, Sofitel FZCO had secured financing from Emirates NBD, a Dubai government-controlled bank, to purchase land and develop the hotel.[341] By 2014, the hotel was completed and open,[341] operating under license from France’s ACCOR hotel franchise.[341] [665]

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] [432] [433] According to the bank’s due diligence files, Picasso Holdings was owned by Leyla Aliyeva, while Davinci Holdings was owned by her sister, Arzu Aliyeva.[341] The transfers from Emirates NBD were recorded as “OWNER PROFIT SHARE” and “OWNERS DISTRIBUTION” in transaction records.[341] 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]

Sofitel FZCO’s UAE business license expired in 2022.[420] Investigators who dug into Pilatus Bank files found that Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva’s documentation contained inconsistent information about when the company was incorporated.[341] There are several Sofitel businesses that are licensed to operate in the UAE, including Sofitel The Palm Hotel, which was established in June 2013.[422] The contact email address for Sofitel The Palm Hotel belongs to Nasim Barakat,[422] who works as the government affairs manager for the sisters’ Dubai hotels.[423] Prior to that, he was a public relations manager for the MIRK group of companies,[423] which includes the Dubai company that designed and built Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva’s Dubai Sofitel hotel and spa.[551] Barakat has also been a director of several companies in Malta linked by financial investigators to the Heydarov brothers.[220] [139] [11]