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Luxurious mansions in London have become the very symbol of corruptly acquired wealth. One of the penthouses in the heart of London belongs to socialite Leyla Aliyeva, thedaughter of Azerbaijan’s president IlhamAliyev, David Rose writes for The Mail on Sunday.

According to the author, the penthouse of the president’s daughter is in Mayfair, one of London’s most expensive and fashionable districts. IlhamAliyevmade billions from the country’s oil reserves and was likened in leaked US cables to a "mafia boss."

It is noted in the article that the Aliyevs’ flats are registered via a web of offshore and UK firms, one of which has Leyla as a director. Rose also writes that she is said to enjoy socializing with Prince Andrew and Lord Mandelson.

According to the information, foreign dictators and their representatives buy expensive houses in London, and this has a direct effect on ordinary people trying to buy a home.

It is noted in the Mail on Sunday article that according to critiques, the British government is not capable of “opening up its books” and confirming who really owns the London palaces.

Anti-corruption group Transparency International, based on data supplied by law enforcement agencies, revealed that real estate worth more than £180 million has been subject to criminal investigation since 2004 in the United Kingdom.

It is also noted that more than three-quarters of the owners of such property use offshore secrecy to hide their identities. There is also information in the article about palaces belonging to the former Kyrgyzstan president KurmanbekBakiyev’sson, Kazak president’s son-in-law TimurKilubayev, and Libyan dictatorMuammar Gaddafi’s son. The latest two palaces are empty now.

In its turn, theRFE/RL Baku bureau writes that neither presidentIlhamAliyev’s administration nor Leila Aliyeva’s representatives have commented on the article about the expensive real estate yet.
On April 5, 2016, the famous British newspaper The Guardian published an article, according to which, the Aliyev family bought real estate worth millions of pounds on the British Virgin Islands through secret offshore companies. It was particularly informed about the purchase of villa worth 17 millions of pounds in the name of the president’s daughters, Leyla and ArzuAliyevas. It was noted that illegal operations and money transfer were implemented through Ata Holding, which belongs to Azerbaijan’s Tax Minister FazilMammadov.

According to the British newspaper, Mammadov controls up to $600 millionsand is the Aliyev family’s “banker.” That information became known after Panama firm “Mossack Fonseca’s” documents had leaked to the media. According to leaked documents, several companies belonging to IlhamAliyev’s children are registered in Panama. Those companies purchased expensive real estate in different years and invested huge resources in various companies in the West.

It is highlighted in the report that such business activity carried out by the head of the state, his wife, and children contradicts the Azerbaijani legislation;it is tax evasion, and should be legally assessed.
Azerbaijani president IlhamAliyev’s clan is mentioned in the documents of the Panama companyMossack Fonseca, which deals with offshore companies’ registration. It was reported that according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), using a network of secretive companies in offshore tax havens, Aliyev's clan, advisers and allies set about acquiring expensive overseas homes and positions in the country’s valuable industries and natural resources, including the family’s majority control of a major gold mine that has been unknown until now.

It was reported that in the middle of 2003, a few months before the October presidential elections, Azerbaijan’s Tax Minister FazilMammadov started to create AtaHolding - one of today’s biggest conglomerates in the country. Mammadov invited president Aliyev’s family to join him and create a potentially powerful and profitable business-political partnership.

According to ICIJ reports, AtaHolding is a corporation with an impressive share in Azerbaijan’s banking, telecommunication, construction, mining, and oil sectors. Asof 2014, itsactionassetsexceeded $490 million.

The leaked documents show that two years later, in 2005, president Aliyev's wife, MP MehribanAliyeva, was named one of two managers of the UF Universe Foundation, along with FazilMammadov. In attachments to a “High Importance” email sent to Mossack Fonseca in February 2005 by a lawyer representing the Aliyevs' clan, documents proposed that then six-year-old Heydar Aliyev, the president’s son who is known in the files as “A1,” be made the beneficiary of 20 percent of the foundation’s proceeds. The plan also proposed that the president’s two daughters, Leyla, then 19, and Arzu, then 17, would hold 15 percent each. Mammadov’s son held 30 percent while Ashraf Kamilov, a former tax ministry official, and other former tax officials held smaller stakes. So, too, did Ata Holding’s chairman, Ahmet Erentok.