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“About $ 200 billion is transferred from Azerbaijan to offshore zones on islands in Latin America, Oceania and Europe. Banks in Muslim countries as well as real estate transactions abroad, gold and stocks are actively used to implement this,” said PhD, Chairman of the Economic Research Center of Azerbaijan, Gubad Ibadoglu, the article published on the website "Biznesinfo.az" says.

Ibadoglu noted that every Azerbaijani family as a result of transfer of money to offshore zones did not count tens of thousands of dollars in his budget.

The article says that in the mid-90s at the time of the original financial redistribution in Azerbaijanthe Bahamas, for example, were perceived as a springboard for the investment inflows. In practice, it looked like this: money was pumped to offshore zone from Azerbaijan, then the structures formed there were registered in Azerbaijan as a partner or investment companies. In the oil sector of the republic 26 such "partners" operate today.

Offshore companies with Azerbaijani asset have proven themselves in other branches of economy. There are insurance, financial and trading firms among them. Offshore schemes worked well in the segment of air aviation, gold mining industry, in a road construction. Besides that, recently a tendency for the Azerbaijani offshore companies has been established there in the sphere of leasing. Increasingly holding companies are willing to register the offshore more frequently, as well as companies involved in franchising and licensing, the article says.

The article states that, at the international level, the many Azerbaijani offshore companies are are not able to act due to Strasbourg Convention of the Council of Europe (1999) of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the Warsaw Convention (2005) on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism. In 2009, Azerbaijan adopted a law "On combating against legalization of criminally obtained funds or other property and the financing of terrorism", which greatly limits the offshore activities. Appropriate decisions of the cabinet of Ministers are developed, as well as instructions and orders of the Ministry of Taxes, the Prosecutor General and the Customs Committee.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Azerbaijan who own big business actively continue to use offshore schemes today. Thus they conduct efficient economic activities, which easily allows their business to prosper "outside the boundaries" of state control, the article says.

"There are many firms with the Azerbaijani capital in offshore today. They make the oil and gas sector, they exist since 1995 and are located mostly in the Cayman Islands, in the United States. The functioning of these companies is conditioned by the benefits of tax regimes," the head of the Azerbaijani Oil Research Center Ilham Shaban commented on the situation.