Arzu Aliyeva is the younger daughter of President Ilham Aliyev and Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva. She is a documentary film producer.[529]
Arzu and her elder sister Leyla are linked to scores of companies in overseas tax havens that have been used, among other purposes, to invest in Russian magazine publishers, upmarket restaurants in Dubai and Moscow, Russian and UK film production companies, and a string of luxury and commercial properties in Dubai, the UK, Moscow, the Czech Republic, and Romania.[516] [517] [11] [518] [519] [520] [521] The sisters have also used offshore companies to acquire lucrative stakes in key Azerbaijani industries, including banking, investment, construction, gold mining, gas, tourism, telecommunication, luxury hotels, fashion, agriculture, retail, and cosmetics.[522] [523] [524] [525] [526] [527] [528] [1406] [1407] [251] [536] These assets are worth at least $13 billion.
When the Aliyeva sisters became clients of Malta’s Pilatus Bank, their source of wealth was described as two five-star hotels in Dubai: the Sofitel hotel on the man-made Palm Jumeirah islands and the Yassat Gloria Hotel Apartments, now known as Mercure Barsha Heights.[11] In certain transactions, the sisters also cited dividends from PASHA Holding, a major Azerbaijani conglomerate owned by the sisters since 2013,[997] [1336] [1112] [1270] as their source of funds.[341]
The sisters’ acquisitions would not have been possible without a close-knit network of facilitators. Multiple law firms, investment funds, and banks have acted on the sisters’ behalf, setting up scores of offshore companies, managing luxury property investments, and sending large sums of money around world.[517] The sisters—and companies owned by them—have held accounts at various banks, including the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (formerly First Gulf Bank), Emirates NBD in Dubai, Banque Havilland in Luxembourg, and Pilatus Bank in Malta.[517] [626] These accounts have been used to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars across the globe, arousing the suspicions of international banks and financial and industry regulators and sparking police probes in Europe, although no charges have been brought.[517] [626] [1061] [1062] [664] [570] [461]
Arzu Aliyeva did not respond to The Sentry’s request for comment.
