OCCRP: Ilham Aliyev’s London mansion costs more than $25 million while he gets US$ 230,000 per year
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s clan owns a 10,500-square-foot London mansion worth more than US$ 25 million, according to the new investigation of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
According to the information, the red-brick house is on the rich neighborhood of Hampstead Lane in North London. It was purchased in 1998 when Aliyev was a vice-president of Azerbaijan’s State Owned Oil Company (SOCAR). It is unknown how much the purchase price was, or how much he was getting paid back then. Land Registry records for the Hampstead Lane house, dubbed the “Mansion on the Heath” by its architects, show that it is owned by Beckforth Services Limited, a company in turn owned by the Aliyevs and registered in the Isle of Man, an offshore tax haven.
Today Ilham Aliyev is the President of Azerbaijan, and the Mansion on the Heath is just one of multiple pied-a-terres used by the Aliyevs, who also maintain domiciles in Moscow and Baku. Today as president, Aliyev’s salary is about US$ 230,000 per year, raising in OCCRP an interesting question: how can he possibly afford such a large house in one of London’s most expensive neighborhoods?
The investigative journalists revealed that the Aliyevs used the address of SOCAR as their personal address.
According to the website of high-end architects SHH, the firm was retained to enlarge and redecorate the property. The architects claim that their client asked for "a sense of grandeur, especially in the entrance area." The Aliyevs’ neighborhood is one of London’s wealthiest. One of the owners of the Arsenal football club, Alisher Usmanov, owns a house down the block, which he bought in 2008 for US$76 million. Although the exact value of the Aliyevs' London property is not clear, their next door neighbor's house was worth more than US$ 26 million two years ago. The Hampstead mansion is likely to be worth significantly more after the work performed by SHH, whose clients include wealthy Saudis and fashion designer Tom Ford, the journalists point.
The Aliyevs did not directly buy the Hampstead mansion in 1998, but used Beckforth Services Limited to acquire it. Wealthy individuals sometimes use such companies to buy property to ensure their names do not appear on the property records. However, the documents for Beckforth Services spell out that its true owners are the Aliyevs, according to OCCRP report.
The OCCRP journalists say one of the first directors of the Aliyevs’ company back in 1997 was an accountant named Joel Steinhart. SMP Partners, who set up and manages Beckforth Services Limited, also offers services to "private clients wishing to protect family assets" and “manages in excess of $6 billion of trust assets for clients.” However, Alham Aliyev is not meant to be “high net-worth” individual or entrepreneur, as he earns a US $230,000 annual salary and is forbidden from running businesses under Azerbaijani law.
However, in this London example alone, their ownership of a hugely expensive property and use of a luxury architectural firm suggests the Azerbaijani president’s clan is spending far more than their visible means of income would support.
Related:
OCCRP new investigation: Aliyev clan controls assets worth more than US$ 3 billion in banking sector
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