Olivier Mestelan is a Swiss lawyer and art collector.[1] He is a business associate of Azerbaijan’s first family, having served alongside Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva as director and treasurer of several companies in Panama, some of which he incorporated.
In 2014, one of these companies, Hughson Management Inc,[534] owned 51% of AtaHolding,[535] a major Azerbaijani conglomerate linked to the Aliyev family and on whose board Mestelan served.[544] [545] Hughson was also one of three Panamanian companies linked to Azerfon,[522] a major Baku-based telecom company that trades as Nar.[546] Hughson and the other companies, Gladwin Management Inc and Grinnell Management Inc, each owned 24% of Azerfon in 2011 and listed Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva as directors and Mestelan as treasurer.[522]
Mestelan was co-director, alongside Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, of three other Panamanian companies: Hising Management SA, Lynden Management Group Inc., and Arblos Management Corp.[21] [29] [301] These companies were partners, or owners, of Globex International LLP, a UK entity.[681] Globex, in turn, was one of several shell companies that held shares in AIMROC,[524] an Azerbaijani mining consortium that in 2007 was awarded a 30-year lease on several lucrative mineral fields, together with the Azerbaijani government.[547] One of these sites, Chovdar, a village west of Baku, was estimated to contain 44 tons of gold and 165 tons of silver, reportedly worth almost $2.5 billion.[548] After Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva’s stake in the mines was exposed, AIMROC was sold to AzerGold, an Azerbaijan state-owned gold miner.[861] [821] [823]
In 2011, a US State Department cable identified Mestelan as one of several “top Azerbaijani officials … of particular interest.” It noted that Mestelan was the president of a Swiss firm called Privaxis Services SA, whose Geneva address was also used by Mestelan and Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva on Panama corporate records for Lynden Management Group Inc., Hising Management S.A., and Greenock Management Corp.[549] [342] [29] [21] [39] In addition, Mestelan was a shareholder of an investment fund in Malta, Privaxis Umbrella Fund SICAV Plc, from 2011 to 2013, at which point his shares were transferred to Gulf Pearl Consulting FZ LLC,[293] [291] a UAE registered company for which Mestelan is the sole director.[298] Privaxis Umbrella Fund had three sub-funds: Privaxis Gold, Privaxis Bonds, and Privaxis Emerging Markets.[294]
Olivier Mestelan did not respond to The Sentry’s request for comment.
