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THE ATLANTIC: ALIYEV CLAN OWNS ALMOST HALF OF RUSSIAN MEGA-BANK VTB'S AZERBAIJANI SUBSIDIARY
15:42 12/07/2013 " ECONOMY
The American editorial "The Atlantic" published an article which
talks about the latest acquisition of the Aliyev clan in Azerbaijan.
According to the article they control a parent company that owns,
through an offshore subsidiary, almost half of Russian mega-bank
VTB's Azerbaijani subsidiary.
"There are only two problems. The first is that VTB, which is the
second-largest bank in Russia and is 75 percent-owned by the Russian
government, is also one of the fastest-growing financial institutions
on the planet, with retail, commercial and investment arms in 19
countries, including the United States," Michael Weiss writes.
According to the article this bank has been, and continues to be,
dogged by civil lawsuits filed in multiple jurisdictions because of
its issuance of loans that have led High Court justices to wonder
"what, if any, due diligence" was carried out beforehand. VTB, as
the author notices, has been accused to being little more than a
vehicle for the enrichment of its executives and for the Kremlin's
"economic diplomacy."
"The second problem is that in May of this year, Azerbaijan's sovereign
wealth fund invested $500 million in VTB's secondary public offering
(SPO). It was joined by Qatar's and Norway's sovereign wealth funds
and, collectively, all three gobbled up 55 percent of the SPO,"
the author writes.
According to the article, on November 9, 2009, Ataholding, an
open joint-stock company that manages AtaBank, one of the biggest
commercial banks in Azerbaijan, purchased 48.99 percent of VTB's
Azerbaijani subsidiary. The remaining 51 percent is owned by VTB and
thus mostly owned by the Russian government. As of December 31, 2009,
AtaBank's investment was valued at 10,887,310 Azerbaijani manats,
which at today's exchange rate is around $13.8 million.
Ataholding is 51 percent-owned by a Panama-registered shell company
called Hughson Management, Inc., of which, Aliyev clan has the
controlling interest. Curiously, and perhaps owing to the diligent
spadework of Andrew Higgins, the Ataholding statement currently
hosted on the company's website does not include the notes section
of the earlier copy, which says that "the Group's immediate parent is
Hughson Management Inc. tax resident of Republic of Panama." Hughson
Management is still currently listed as the majority owner of AtaBank.
The author also touches to Aliyev clan story, noting that Heydar
Aliyev was KGB chief who turned Communist ruler and was the kind of
Stalinoid satrap-cum-mafia kingpin, who could bribe Leonid Brezhnev,
if he found it necessary, in order to remain in power. Gorbachev's
rise in Moscow coincided with this Heydar's eclipse in Baku. He
subsequently became first the de facto head of the republic, as the
USSR was falling apart, and then the first president of post-Soviet
Azerbaijan in 1993. Heydar ruled until 2003, which is the year he died.
The elder Heydar was immediately succeeded by his son Ilham, whose own
"election" in 2003 Human Rights Watch characterized as the rotten
fruit of "bureaucratic interference and political intimidation
against the opposition [which made] a free and fair pre-election
campaign environment impossible." Terms limits for presidents were
abolished in 2009, the same year the regime clamped down on domestic
press freedoms and took the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
and Voice of America off the air.
Here's how the U.S. embassy in Baku described Ilham Aliyev in 2009:
"Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev utilizes distinctly different
approaches to foreign and domestic policies. He typically devises
the former with pragmatism, restraint and a helpful bias toward
integration with the West, yet at home his policies have become
increasingly authoritarian and hostile to diversity of political
views. This divergence of approaches, combined with his father's
continuing omnipresence, has led some observers to compare the Aliyevs
with the fictional 'Corleones' of Godfather fame, with the current
president described alternately as a mix of 'Michael' and 'Sonny.'
Either way, this Michael/Sonny dichotomy complicates our approach
to Baku and has the unfortunate effect of framing what should be a
strategically valuable relationship as a choice between U.S. interests
and U.S. values."
Talking about the suspicious relations with the offshore companies
the author notes that the Aliyev clan doesn't wish to see explored by
muckraking journalists. And Ismayilova, the journalist who was making
her own investigation in this sphere, was targeted by a particularly
nasty campaign of state harassment, which included her being sent an
envelope filled with "pictures of a personal nature" and a message
reading: "whore, behave, or you will be defamed," the article says.
It also says that these images were later published in Azerbaijani
newspapers associated with the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. Ismayilova
later discovered and documented surveillance wires that had been
installed in the walls and ceilings of her home kitchen, bathroom
and bedroom. The government's "investigation" of the tapping of
Ismayilova's residence was a whitewash.
Source: Panorama.am
15:42 12/07/2013 " ECONOMY
The American editorial "The Atlantic" published an article which
talks about the latest acquisition of the Aliyev clan in Azerbaijan.
According to the article they control a parent company that owns,
through an offshore subsidiary, almost half of Russian mega-bank
VTB's Azerbaijani subsidiary.
"There are only two problems. The first is that VTB, which is the
second-largest bank in Russia and is 75 percent-owned by the Russian
government, is also one of the fastest-growing financial institutions
on the planet, with retail, commercial and investment arms in 19
countries, including the United States," Michael Weiss writes.
According to the article this bank has been, and continues to be,
dogged by civil lawsuits filed in multiple jurisdictions because of
its issuance of loans that have led High Court justices to wonder
"what, if any, due diligence" was carried out beforehand. VTB, as
the author notices, has been accused to being little more than a
vehicle for the enrichment of its executives and for the Kremlin's
"economic diplomacy."
"The second problem is that in May of this year, Azerbaijan's sovereign
wealth fund invested $500 million in VTB's secondary public offering
(SPO). It was joined by Qatar's and Norway's sovereign wealth funds
and, collectively, all three gobbled up 55 percent of the SPO,"
the author writes.
According to the article, on November 9, 2009, Ataholding, an
open joint-stock company that manages AtaBank, one of the biggest
commercial banks in Azerbaijan, purchased 48.99 percent of VTB's
Azerbaijani subsidiary. The remaining 51 percent is owned by VTB and
thus mostly owned by the Russian government. As of December 31, 2009,
AtaBank's investment was valued at 10,887,310 Azerbaijani manats,
which at today's exchange rate is around $13.8 million.
Ataholding is 51 percent-owned by a Panama-registered shell company
called Hughson Management, Inc., of which, Aliyev clan has the
controlling interest. Curiously, and perhaps owing to the diligent
spadework of Andrew Higgins, the Ataholding statement currently
hosted on the company's website does not include the notes section
of the earlier copy, which says that "the Group's immediate parent is
Hughson Management Inc. tax resident of Republic of Panama." Hughson
Management is still currently listed as the majority owner of AtaBank.
The author also touches to Aliyev clan story, noting that Heydar
Aliyev was KGB chief who turned Communist ruler and was the kind of
Stalinoid satrap-cum-mafia kingpin, who could bribe Leonid Brezhnev,
if he found it necessary, in order to remain in power. Gorbachev's
rise in Moscow coincided with this Heydar's eclipse in Baku. He
subsequently became first the de facto head of the republic, as the
USSR was falling apart, and then the first president of post-Soviet
Azerbaijan in 1993. Heydar ruled until 2003, which is the year he died.
The elder Heydar was immediately succeeded by his son Ilham, whose own
"election" in 2003 Human Rights Watch characterized as the rotten
fruit of "bureaucratic interference and political intimidation
against the opposition [which made] a free and fair pre-election
campaign environment impossible." Terms limits for presidents were
abolished in 2009, the same year the regime clamped down on domestic
press freedoms and took the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
and Voice of America off the air.
Here's how the U.S. embassy in Baku described Ilham Aliyev in 2009:
"Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev utilizes distinctly different
approaches to foreign and domestic policies. He typically devises
the former with pragmatism, restraint and a helpful bias toward
integration with the West, yet at home his policies have become
increasingly authoritarian and hostile to diversity of political
views. This divergence of approaches, combined with his father's
continuing omnipresence, has led some observers to compare the Aliyevs
with the fictional 'Corleones' of Godfather fame, with the current
president described alternately as a mix of 'Michael' and 'Sonny.'
Either way, this Michael/Sonny dichotomy complicates our approach
to Baku and has the unfortunate effect of framing what should be a
strategically valuable relationship as a choice between U.S. interests
and U.S. values."
Talking about the suspicious relations with the offshore companies
the author notes that the Aliyev clan doesn't wish to see explored by
muckraking journalists. And Ismayilova, the journalist who was making
her own investigation in this sphere, was targeted by a particularly
nasty campaign of state harassment, which included her being sent an
envelope filled with "pictures of a personal nature" and a message
reading: "whore, behave, or you will be defamed," the article says.
It also says that these images were later published in Azerbaijani
newspapers associated with the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. Ismayilova
later discovered and documented surveillance wires that had been
installed in the walls and ceilings of her home kitchen, bathroom
and bedroom. The government's "investigation" of the tapping of
Ismayilova's residence was a whitewash.
Source: Panorama.am