Azerbaijan - Global Laundromat

Yervant1 · September 30, 2017

More dirty laundry from fake sultan!

Bretton Woods Project
Sept 27 2017

Azerbaijani Laundromat to sully Bank’s reputation?
27 September 2017
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TANAP stakeholders meet on 29 February 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Credit: EEAS
Summary

Laundromat scandal raises new questions about World Bank’s TANAP loans

CSOs concerned about human rights abuses in Turkey and Azerbaijan

CSOs say proposed pipeline out-of-step with Paris Agreement

According to a September report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), “From 2012 to 2014 … members of [Azerbaijan’s] … ruling elite were using a secret slush fund to pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, [and] launder money.” The scandal, dubbed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, saw $2.9 billion transacted through a series of shell companies. Among the Azeri politicians implicated in the scandal is first deputy prime minister Yaqub Eyyubov, who, according to OCCRP, has been tasked “with developing the oil-dependent country’s oil and gas strategy” since 2009.

In December, the World Bank’s board of directors approved two $400 million loans to Turkey and Azerbaijan, respectively, for construction of the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). TANAP will stretch across Turkey, accounting for more than half of the proposed Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), a mega-project that will convey natural gas from the Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea region to Italy (see Observer Summer 2016). In December, the Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA, the World Bank’s political risk insurance arm) also proposeda guarantee of up to $950 million for TANAP against the risk of the non-honouring of a sovereign financial obligation. This guarantee would provide potential de-risking for ‘yet to be named’ investors, and would help cover Azerbaijan’s required contribution of $750 million towards the construction of TANAP.
Civil society raises concerns about TANAP
A September letter from four CSOs, including Counter Balance and BankWatch, to UK newspaper The Guardian published on 6 September suggested that covert payments to European politicians uncovered by the Laundromat scandal may be linked to the SGC, calling it the “elephant in the room” that has been absent from media reports. The letter stated, “Azerbaijan is particularly keen to present a positive image in Europe because it needs significant European support for its flagship project – the Southern Gas Corridor – despite the regime’s serial human rights abuses, systemic corruption and election rigging.” Decisions on proposed loans from European multilateral banks for construction of the SGC are imminent. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) board is to vote on a $1 billion loan for TANAP’s construction on 18 October. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is due to consider a $2 billion loan for construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final leg of the SGC connecting TANAP to Italy via Greece and Albania, on 18 October, and is expected to vote on its proposed $500 million loan to TANAP by the end of the year.

“In addition to contributing to human rights violations in Azerbaijan and Turkey, NGOs have repeatedly highlighted that, in a post-Paris Agreement world, it is no time for public development banks to finance fossil fuel projects."Xavier Sol, Counter Balance

Additionally, a September letter from 25 CSOs, including Both ENDS and Crude Accountability, to the EIB noted, “In March this year, the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) suspended Azerbaijan’s membership as a result of a crackdown on civil society organizations. This was followed by the Azeri government deciding to quit the EITI.” Azerbaijan’s withdrawal from EITI came despite the World Bank’s board acknowledging in the chair’s summary of the TANAP loan approval in December, “the need for continued dialogue with Azerbaijan on [EITI] and ensuring that efforts are made towards restoration of its membership status.”

CSOs have been critical of multilateral development banks’ support for TANAP, owning to serious concerns about human rights violations in both Azerbaijan and Turkey and the negative environmental impact of the SGC project (see Observer Summer 2016). Xavier Sol from Counter Balance said, “In addition to contributing to human rights violations in Azerbaijan and Turkey, NGOs have repeatedly highlighted that, in a post-Paris Agreement world, it is no time for public development banks to finance fossil fuel projects. In addition, this project – if completed – would do little to provide additional energy security to the European Union, and would be detrimental to the diversification of the Azeri economy.”

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2017/09/azerbaijani-laundromat-sully-banks-reputation/

Yervant1 · October 8, 2017

Panorama, Armenia

Oct 7 2017

Pedro Agramunt avoided total humiliation - MP Naira Zohrabyan

The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt avoided total humiliation on October 9 - on the first day of the PACE autumn session, member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, MP Naira Zohrabyan told in an interview to Panorama.am.

“The corrupt lobbyists should have no place in reputable international structures. October 9 was expected to become the last nail into the coffin of Argument’s political activity, therefor he resigned at the recommendation of his political doctors (I am sure he has no health problems except the one related to morality) to escape the final accord of humiliation. However, as the saying goes, this is the beginning of the end, as the Pandora’s box is now open. We see a clear socio-political demand emerging in European structures to investigate all the minor and big actors involved in the “Azerbaijani Laundromat” by President Ilham Aliyev and to hold them accountable,” Zohrabyan said.

The Armenian lawmaker pointed to the case of the Belgian MP Alain Destexhe who resigned from PACE due to the involvement in the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal and for being “Aliyev’s loyal client” after the relevant reports came under the spotlight of the European media.

“People like Agramunt are everywhere, yet they will undoubtedly carry responsibility. The independent commission set up by the June 27 PACE resolution will be able to investigate the actions of people like Agramunt and uncover Aliyev’s dark deals,” added Zohrabyan.

To remind, Agramunt has been the target of substantial criticism following his decision unauthorized trip to Syria, along with two other PACE members, and meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. On June 27, the PACE adopted a resolution, which made certain amendments in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. The PACE initiated the above-mentioned amendments to dismiss President Pedro Agramunt, since the latter has lost his confidence in the Assembly, failing to submit resignation voluntarily.

Zohrabyan next insisted the Council of Europe should initiate the process of kicking off Azerbaijan from the Council of Europe.

“Days ago, at a meeting with members of the EU Political and Security Committee President Aliyev declared that if Azerbaijan leaves the Council of Europe, noone will pay any attention to that, nothing will change in their lives and they will not become any better or worse, richer or poorer. Imagine such a statement from the head of a member state to CoE. After all this shouldn’t we initiate the issue of expulsion of Azerbaijan from the organization?” Zohrabyan concluded.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/10/07/Pedro-Agramunt-avoided-total-humiliation-MP-Naira-Zohrabyan/1846535

Yervant1 · October 8, 2017

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 6, 2017 Friday

EU lawmaker: Azerbaijan intended to expand its "bribery" network,
including more and more European politicians

Yerevan October 6

Tatevik Shahunyan. According to the information, the Azerbaijani
authorities bribed not only PACE member Luke Volont, German
parliamentarian Eduard Lintner and former head of the Assembly Pedro
Agramunt, but intended to expand their "bribery network", including
more and more European politicians. The PACE has already begun an
investigation into this matter, and maybe it will reveal more facts.
This was stated by the deputy of the European Parliament from
Luxembourg Frank Engel, writes The Budapest Beacon.

According to him, in Brussels there are so-called "non-governmental
organizations", which are controlled by the Azerbaijani government,
and they can have connections not only with the members of the
European Parliament, but also with other influential institutions.
Further, the parliamentarian notes that Azerbaijan is also known for
corruption, violation of human rights and dictatorial form of
government, and, nevertheless, is a member of the Council of Europe,
having many friends among the politicians of the European Parliament.
"And this leads to suspicions why the European MEPs should belong to
the country in which all this negativity is flourishing," Engel said,
suggesting that the extradition of the murderer of the Armenian
officer Ramil Safarov to Hungary was also the result of bribery.
According to him, the international community and the European Union
should take a firmer stance on the Karabakh conflict, since the
population of Karabakh is under constant threat because of such as
Safarov.

On 4 September, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
(OCCRP) published an investigation on its website called the
"Azerbaijan Landmass." In a joint journalistic The investigation,
which also involved Suddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Barron's (USA), Le
Monde (France), The Guardian (Great Britain), Bivol (Bulgaria) and
others, said that the Azerbaijani authorities used fictitious
companies in the UK for laundering 2.9 billion dollars. This money was
used to bribe European politicians who lobbied Azerbaijan's interests
in the EU and blocked resolutions condemning human rights violations
in the former Soviet republic. All this took place against the
backdrop of mass arrests of activists and journalists in Azerbaijan,
representatives of the ruling elite of the country used the secret
"black cash desk" to pay bribes to European politicians, purchase of
luxury goods, money laundering and other self-serving purposes.

Yervant1 · October 8, 2017

Immoral sub human!!!!! Politician for hire, I hope the rest learns from this humiliation.

Asbarez.com

Pro-Azerbaijani PACE President Steps Down
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Pro-Azerbaijani President of PACE Pedro Agramunt resigned Friday

STRASBOURG, France—The embattled pro-Azerbaijani president of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, Pedro Agramunt, stepped down from his post on Friday citing “personal reasons.”

“Due to personal reasons today I decided to step down as head of the parliamentary assembly of the council of Europe,” Agramunt said in a post on Twitter, adding that he had taken the decision in consultation with his doctors.

PACE lawmakers were expected to impeach Agramunt during the October session of the parliamentary assembly and in April gave him a vote of no confidence, essentially barring him from presiding over the body.

The PACE officially affirmed Agramunt’s resignation. The organization’s senior vice-president, Britain’s Roger Gale, will serve as acting president for the body until a new election is held.

“Following the resignation the most senior Vice President, Sir Roger Gale automatically became the acting President,” reads an announcement posted on the PACE website.

In 2016, the European Stability Initiative in its report, described Agramunt as an ally of Azerbaijan.

“There are very few fellow members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) who have been to Azerbaijan as regularly over the past decade as Pedro Agramunt, the conservative Spanish senator, a businessman from Valencia. Agramunt has been consistent in this approach to Azerbaijan: from the very beginning of his relationship with Baku he has been a defender of the Aliyev regime. The latest monitoring report is his masterpiece,” the ESI report stated.

During the fall 2015 session of PACE, Agramunt emerged as a proponent of a resolution adopted by a sub-committee, which was authored by British Member of Parliament Robert Walter, whose report was pro-Azerbaijani and in the summer was granted Turkish citizenship.

Following the passage of the resolution and another, which centered on the use of the Sarsang Reservoir in Artsakh, the OSCE Minks Group co-chairmen warned international organizations to not interfere in the Karabakh conflict resolution processes issuing a similar rebuke to PACE.

Members of Armenia’s delegation commented on the Agramunt resignation, with Naira Zohrabyan telling Armenpress on Friday that the resignation announcement was made in order to avoid further humilitation.

She said if Agramunt were impeached, he would “go away with maximum humiliation. Therefore, in order to go away with minimal humiliation, he resigned.” She also commented on Agramunt’s claim that he had consulted his medical team before making the decision, saying that he made the decision “in line with the recommendation of his ‘political doctors.’”

Samvel Farmanyan, another PACE member from Armenia said that Argamunt made the decision to avoid impeachment during the session scheduled for Monday.

The PACE shows signs of rehabilitation,” Farmanyan said in a Facebook post.

Since PACE has announced investigations into the conduct of its members, with a focus on Azerbaijan lobbyists paying PACE members for favorable votes, Baku has expressed trepidations about the European body, with its president, Ilham Aliyev, threating to exit the Council of Europe.

http://asbarez.com/167413/pro-azerbaijani-pace-president-steps-down/

Yervant1 · October 11, 2017

Put your money where your mouth is! Talk is cheap, action is needed.

Panorama, Armenia
Oct 10 2017

Armenian MP urges PACE to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan
Member of the Armenia delegation to Parliamentary Assemble to the Council of Europe (PACE), Armenian MP Mikayel Melkumyan insists on imposing sanctions against Azerbaijan following a series of stories surfaced in international media named “Azerbaijani laundromat” that described various mechanisms of using $2.9 billion slush fund to buy influence across Europe.
Melkumyan’s suggestion came on the second day of the Assembly autumn session underway in Strasbourg.
“We have plenty of facts, as reflected in international media among other things, with exact references to the type and size of the bribes, therefore the time has come to impose sanctions against the country and its delegation in the Assembly,” Melkumyan declared in his remarks, warning against negative consequences of inaction on behalf of the organization.
The MP noted that amid the decrease of oil process the Azerbaijani economy and public life have occurred in a deep crisis
“What is going in Azerbaijan, where even reporters are abducted from a neighboring country and imprisoned with fabricated charges. They spend huge sums in different international structures, bribe various officials to maintain a positive image for the country. It is unimaginable to think number of international media outlets, the likes of The Guardian to spread disinformation. As the saying goes there is no smoke without fire,” concluded Melkumyan.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/10/10/Armenian-MP/1847673

Yervant1 · October 11, 2017

Keep up the pressure and keep it in the news until action is taken!

MediaMax, Armenia
Oct 10 2017

Armenian MP mentions Azerbaijani Laundromat at a meeting with German diplomat

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Yerevan/Mediamax/. Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of Armenian National Assembly, Armen Ashotyan noted that Armenia-EU relations facilitate stability of the region.

He made that statement at the meeting with Andreas Peschke, Director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, and Bundestag members Hartmut Koschyk and Stephan Mayer on October 9.

Touching on bilateral relations between Armenia and Germany, Armen Ashotyan noted the Armenian side is ready to make necessary efforts in order to develop and strengthen cooperation with the newly elected Bundestag.

Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations attached importance to Germany’s balanced position in the NK issue settlement.

Armen Ashotyan also mentioned the topic of Azerbaijani Laundromat and noted that a comprehensive investigation was in order to keep international and national parliaments out of corruption scandals.

http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/foreignpolicy/25741/

Yervant1 · October 11, 2017

Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
October 9, 2017 Monday

Armenian MP calls at PACE to disclose Hungary-Azerbaijan corruption
deal on selling Ramil Safarov

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Naira Zohrabyan – member of the
Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE), called on the members of the Council of Europe to
reveal the involvement of their lawmakers in the recent corruption
scandals linked with the Assembly, reports Armenpress.

The Armenian MP also urged the representatives of Hungarian delegation
at PACE to find out how Hungary sold murderer Ramil Safarov to Baku
for 7.6 million USD.

Naira Zohrabyan delivered remarks at the PACE autumn plenary session
touching upon the resignation of Pedro Agramunt and the recent
corruption scandals involving European lawmakers and the need to
disclose them.

“Pedro Agramunt, known as ‘Don Corruption’, resigned on October 6 by
the calls of his political doctors. I congratulate those PACE
lawmakers who didn’t allow the PACE name to be identified with
corruption where someone can buy, sell, re-sell a lawmaker and force
to serve his country’s authoritarian agenda. But whether putting an
end on Pedro Agramunt is enough to clean up the corruption cobweb from
the PACE face? It becomes clear that different European figures are
involved in the famous corruption scandal who for years have received
huge amount of money from the Danske Bank Estonia branch. I hope our
colleagues of the Hungarian delegation will address a question to
their country’s political leadership over the scandalous disclosure
according to which Hungary has sold murderer Ramil Safarov for 7.6
million USD who killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe
while he was sleeping. I think our Hungarian colleagues will be
interested in how millions of dollars have been transferred to a bank
account opened by Metastar Invest in the Hungarian MKB bank and how
these bank accounts are linked with Hungary’s political leadership. I
would like to remind that the Metastar Invest is the company which
regularly transferred money to former PACE Vice-President Luca Volontè
who most probably at the moment tells to the Italian prosecution about
his warm relationship with his totalitarian friend”, Naira Zohrabyan
said.

The Armenian lawmaker said during the PACE June session they have
supported the creation of independent investigative body which
impartially investigates all corruption cases linked with the
Assembly’s activity. “There are numerous similar facts which have
recently been the subject of international media. I join the statement
of the President of Transparency International who said ‘it’s just
shocking to see how certain political figures are being sold in a
respected structure like PACE and close their eyes on corruption and
human rights violations’. Recently the Seimas of Lithuania has
appealed to the country’s financial crimes investigative body urging
to investigative the possible involvement of Lithuanian figures in the
corruption scandals linked with the PACE. I hope many CoE countries
will follow Lithuania’s example and I assure that many supporters of
Don Pedro will have to ask for a political asylum from the country
nourishing them”.

MosJan · October 17, 2017

https://www.facebook.com/ImproudtobeArmenian/videos/1334904809970720/

MosJan · October 17, 2017

Yervant1 · October 22, 2017

Asbarez.com

Two Australian Lawmakers Call Out Azerbaijan

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The Hon. David Feeney (ALP) on the left and Government MP, John Alexander (Liberal) on the right (Photo: ANC-AU)

CANBERRA, Australia – Following meetings with the Armenian National Committee of Australia’s (ANC-AU) largest ever Advocacy Week delegation, two Members of Federal Parliament rose in the House of Representatives on Thursday to condemn Azerbaijan for failing peace in Nagorno Karabakh.

Opposition MP, the Hon. David Feeney (ALP) blasted government Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who after a recent visit to Azerbaijan spoke in favor of the oil-dictatorship’s “territorial integrity” when referring to Artsakh. His speech also exposed the Azerbaijani Laundromat saga, which has revealed the “cash for favorable coverage” campaign being run by the Aliyev regime in Western countries.

Government MP, John Alexander (Liberal) followed Feeney, exposing the fact that the Republic of Artsakh is ready for extra monitoring to promote peace in their region, but Azerbaijan was not.

Feeney, who is the Member for Batman in Victoria, said: “In recent weeks leaked data has revealed that Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.9 billion scheme to launder money and pay prominent Europeans, including journalists and politicians.”

“This unfolding scandal shows that the Azerbaijani leadership, already accused by Amnesty International and other NGOs of serial human rights abuses, systemic corruptions and rigging elections, made more than 16,000 covert payments from 2012 to 2014 through a network of opaque British companies.”

“Investigations led by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project have revealed that these illicit payments, using reputable banks and secret companies, aimed to buy political influence and launder Azerbaijan’s international image. Just this week, the ASIO annual report warned that foreign governments have been attempting to shape the opinions of the public and the media in covert influence operations.

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Snapshots from Advocacy Week in Australia (Photo: ANC-AU)

Turning to Fierravanti-Wells’s contribution to this issue, Feeney added: “New South Wales Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells visited Azerbaijan recently. Upon her return she stated on the public record, ‘Australia is a forthright supporter of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and strongly supports Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh.'”

“This bold statement rewrites Australian foreign policy and disregards Australia’s longstanding support of the OSCE Minsk Group peace efforts for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of equal rights and the self-determination of people. I urge the senator to not give in to caviar diplomacy.”

Alexander, who is the Member for Bennelong, told the House of Representatives: “On 17 October the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe called for a meeting with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss the de-escalation of tensions on the border of the still unrecognized Armenian-populated Republic of Artsakh, previously known as Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“Since the ceasefire between the two countries in 1994, the OSCE has been responsible for promoting negotiations, ceasefire monitoring and conflict resolution.”

He explained: “Three immediate priorities for the de-escalation of tensions have been proposed. The first is the removal of snipers along the line of contact, the second is the increase in the number of OSCE monitors in the region and the third is the establishing of gunfire locator systems as an investigative measurement to determine which side is responsible for future ceasefire violations.”

“These suggestions apply to both sides of the conflict. Armenia is ready to accept the OSCE recommendations; Azerbaijan is not. OSCE suggested that confidence- and security-building measures are a prerequisite for not only the advancement of negotiations but also the stabilization of the region through deterring future aggression.”

“As an OSCE Partner for Co-operation, Australia has a role to play.”

The two speeches completed a week of advocacy for the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), where issues including justice for the Armenian Genocide, Artsakh’s rights for self-determination and more local community issues, including refugee resettlement, were discussed with over 30 legislators and bureaucrats.

“We thank Mr. Feeney and Mr. Alexander for their statements,” said ANC-AU Managing Director, Vache Kahramanian. “It is a groundbreaking day for Artsakh advocacy in Australia when two politicians from the country’s two major parties rise consecutively to condemn an aggressive and corrupt Azeri regime, while promoting the rights to self-determination that will bring peace and protect the Armenians of the Nagorno Karabakh region.”

On the evening of Tuesday 17th October, a special screening of the Armenian Genocide-era Hollywood epic, The Promise took place at the Australian Parliament House (click here to read report).

The 11-strong ANC-AU delegation was joined by ANC America Communications Director, Elizabeth Chouldjian, who is the organization’s guest speaker at its Annual Banquet on Friday, 20th October.

Watch video of Feeney statement by clicking here.

Watch video of Alexander statement by clicking here.

http://asbarez.com/167921/two-australian-lawmakers-call-out-azerbaijan/

Yervant1 · October 28, 2017

Asbarez.com

Angela Merkel’s CDU Party Received Donations from Azerbaijan

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Angela Merkel

BONN, Germany (Deutsche Welle) – Germany’s CDU party has received donations from a state-run Azerbaijani company, a German media consortium reported. The affair again highlights links between conservative politicians and the Central Asian dictatorship.

A district chapter of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) received €28,000 ($33,114) from the state-run Azerbaijani oil and gas company Socar in contravention of German rules on party donations, a consortium of public broadcasters NDR, WDR and daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

The case again calls into question connections between certain conservative politicians and the South Caucasian republic, whose leader, President Ilham Aliyev, has been criticized by human rights organizations.

According to the report, two payments, one of €3,000 and one of €25,000, were deposited by Socar’s Germany-based branch on the account of the CDU’s district association in Frankfurt at the end of February 2012.

No fine for the CDU

The affair had caused a four-year-long legal dispute with the parliamentary administration authority behind the scenes, the report said, since German law prohibits parties from receiving donations from non-EU countries.

Although the district CDU branch accepted the donation without question, auditors at party headquarters in Berlin notified the Administration of the German Bundestag, which decided as early as autumn 2013 that the gift was not allowable under the law. The CDU then gave up the donation to be immediately impounded, the report said.

However, despite having broken the law, the party will not have to pay a fine, largely owing to a ruling made by an administrative court in April that self-denunciation in such cases can not only mitigate penalties, but even avert them altogether.

Mysterious links

The affair has raised several questions about links between the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and Azerbaijan, and what objectives the country could be pursuing with its donations.

The German CEO of Socar, Anders Egen Mamedov, was quoted by the paper as saying that the company’s contacts with political officials was taking place “against the background of the geopolitical importance of Azerbaijan and Socar,” including with regard to the pipeline network through seven countries that is currently under construction.

The massive gas pipeline project was chosen over the Nabucco-West pipeline in 2013 with the support of the then EU commissioner for energy, the German CDU politician Günther Oettinger.

Mamedov said Socar also made donations to sports and cultural associations in Germany. He declined to give details or speak about possible donations to other German of European parties to the paper.

Lobbying activities

The Süddeutsche also pointed to CDU parliamentarian Karin Strenz, who according to the paper did not disclose her work for an Azerbaijan-financed lobbying firm within three months as asked. The company is owned by former CSU politician Eduard Lintner, who has been doing lobbying work for Azerbaijan since 2009.

In another possible indication of her sympathies with the authoritarian country, in June 2015 Strenz voted against a resolution by the Council of Europe to call on Azerbaijan to release its political prisoners — the only German MP to do so, according to an earlier report in the paper.

Azerbaijan was described in a resolution by the European Parliament in September 2015 as “having suffered the greatest decline in democratic governance in all of Eurasia over the past 10 years.”

http://asbarez.com/168258/angela-merkels-cdu-party-received-donations-from-azerbaijan/

Yervant1 · November 12, 2017

Pan Armenian, Armenia

Nov 11 2017

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November 11, 2017 - 11:01 AMT

Armenian Assembly calls for public hearings on Turkish interference

Amid reports that Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be filing new indictments after probing a potential quid pro quo scheme, whereby then National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would be paid $15 million to secretly carry out Turkey's bidding, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) calls for thorough public Congressional hearings to fully expose these matters.

Flynn was already paid $530,000 last year for work the Justice Department says benefited the government of Turkey, and did not register as a foreign agent at the time.

The Assembly has repeatedly highlighted Turkey's attempts to gain surreptitious influence over U.S. officials and media to the detriment of U.S. national security, and has urged investigations therein. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Member, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), in a June 2017 op-ed in The Hill titled "Did Turkey's payments to Michael Flynn delay our military operations against ISIS?" stated that "questions regarding Turkey, however, reveal most clearly how personal considerations may have overridden our national interests." In addition, the Assembly has also highlighted Azerbaijan's attempts to undermine western democratic values and institutions through the billions it has spent in the "Laundromat scheme" to buy silence. Investigations are now bearing fruit. The Assembly has also urged with some success those Representatives who joined the Turkish and Azeri Caucuses to withdraw.

"The latest news regarding secret payments to Michael Flynn to carry out Turkey's bidding are just the tip of the iceberg," stated Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian. "Illegal Turkish and Azerbaijani money has been flowing into D.C. and we have an obligation to immediately stop these corrupting practices. Beyond thorough investigations and indictments, exposure through public hearings and legislative reform to increase reporting and penalties are necessary to stop officials who can be bought by the Erdogans and Aliyevs of the world from hijacking the American government," they added. "Members ought not to associate themselves with such corrupt and authoritarian regimes. Given Turkey's treatment of Christians, dangerously rogue behavior, denial of the Armenian Genocide and support for Azerbaijan's ISIS-style beheadings and other attacks, it is well past time for Members of Congress to withdraw their membership from the Turkish and Azeri Congressional Caucuses."

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501©(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

http://panarmenian.net/m/eng/news/248708

Yervant1 · November 17, 2017

Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
November 16, 2017 Thursday

PACE to discuss Azerbaijani Laundromat money laundering scandal as
separate report

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The Legal Affairs Committee of PACE
has addressed money laundering, including the “Azerbaijani
Laundromat”, Armenian Parliament Vice-Speaker, head of Armenia’s
delegation to PACE Arpine Hovhannisyan said on Facebook.

Hovhannisyan said it is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani Laundromat
will be discussed as a separate report at the initiative of the
committee itself.

She said that the PACE co- rapporteurs verbally presented the
developments of Armenia in the Monitoring Committee, while the Armenia
report will be discussed during the next sittings.

The political affairs committee discussed two reports relating to the
financing of the Islamic State, as well as the consequences of the
Syrian Conflict on the region.

Yervant1 · November 24, 2017

Emerging Europe
Nov 22 2017

The Azerbaijani Laundromat: Why It Matters

About Audrey L Altstadt

Audrey L. Altstadt is Professor of History at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of several dozen articles
published in the US, Europe, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, and of three
books, most recently The Politics of Culture in Soviet Azerbaijan,
1920-1940 (Routledge, 2016) and Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet
Azerbaijan (Woodrow Wilson Centre Press and Columbia University Press,
2017.) She has been a consultant with the US Foreign Service
Institute, the Department of Justice, the US Institute of Peace,
Freedom House. She has been a fellow at Harvard’s Davis Russian
Research Centre, the Kennan Institute, and the Woodrow Wilson
International Centre for Scholars. She was also awarded an Honorary
Doctorate in 2000 by Khazar University in Baku.

Money laundering may not be theft, but it is a product of theft.
Sources of laundered money may include illegal activities such as
trafficking in drugs or humans, or it may be diverted income from
natural resources, inflated costs, bribes, fake loans, or other
financial manipulation. The money might be stolen from the state, in
the form of unpaid taxes or other charges, or from the people of a
country – as with stolen revenues from the sale of natural resources
from oil to diamonds. Money laundering thus reflects economic and
moral damage to individuals and institutions and thereby threatens the
stability and security of states, societies, and regions.

In September, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
(OCCRP), in partnership with more than a dozen European and US news
organisations, broke the story of an Azerbaijani laundromat which
“cleaned” 2.5 billion euros (almost 3 billion US dollars) in a
two-year period using UK-registered shell companies and a European
bank.

The news was hardly surprising to those who follow Azerbaijan. In
2012, the OCCRP named Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev its Person of
the Year. At that time the OCCRP cited not only the deep corruption in
the country, but the thorough documentation of various types of
corruption by the ruling family and associated oligarchs. As
subsequent revelations affirm, Aliyev fully deserved the 2012 OCCRP
title.

The recent “Azerbaijani Laundromat” report traces the routing of
payments from 2012 to 2014 in bundles of tens to hundreds of thousands
of euros. The origin of these millions is murky. Some came from
Azerbaijani ministries, some from the Russian arms exporter
Rosoboronexport and other actual companies. The largest single source
(about 1.4 billion US dollars) came from the International Bank of
Azerbaijan (IBA), from accounts linked to “mystery” companies whose
business activities, or even websites or physical locations, cannot be
located.

Turning a Blind Eye

Some of the money was used to purchase luxury goods. Large sums were
apparently spent to influence businessmen and influential political
figures particularly in the Council of Europe. Most of the money went
to other shell companies registered in the UK as well as entities in
the UAE and Turkey, showing that this report, though extensive and
complex, probably does not cover the full scope of the money flow.
Payments went through the Estonian branch of the Danske Bank where
bank officials, says the report, turned a “blind eye” to the large
transactions.

Aligning money transfers with specific actions of influential European
recipients, OCCRP and its partners make a strong case for Azerbaijan
buying influence. From a human rights vantage point, the most
distressing series of payments was to deputies in the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Italy’s Luca Volonté and
German’s Eduard Lintner. At present, Volonté is being prosecuted in
Italy for corruption and prosecutors say he worked to quash a PACE
report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Ilham Aliyev used the
failure of PACE to adopt its own commission’s report to claim there
were no political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Volonté received nearly 2
million euros from the Azerbaijani laundromat.

Lintner, a German parliamentarian and later PACE deputy, received
large payments from the laundromat during his service as an election
monitor. He got one payment just after his claim that Azerbaijan’s
2013 presidential elections – denounced as not free or fair by
domestic, US, and OSCE monitors – were up to German standards. He got
another when a domestic critic of those elections was arrested.
Lintner ultimately received a total of 820,000 euros (just over 1
million US dollars) between 2012 and 2014.

The story is reminiscent of the Russian laundromat, reported by OCCRP
in 2014 which involved much more money – 30 billion US dollars –
reflecting no doubt the greater size and complexity of the Russian
economy and the greater number of oligarchs. More important, both
operations involved 33 of the same companies, illustrating another
aspect of strong post-Soviet bonds between the two energy-producing
and corrupt former Soviet republics.

Naming & Shaming

The scope of this international activity makes observers wonder what
might be done to curtail the money laundering on which bribery and
theft depend. The damage of criminal behavior is significant and it is
both material and moral. Money is diverted from stated business
purposes, which in the case of oil revenues is stolen from the people
of the country who may be considered its owners and the rightful
beneficiaries of its sale.[1] Money of uncertain origin goes into the
pockets of influential European political figures. When such
subversion of judgment affects the Council of Europe, it casts doubt
on the Council’s own integrity and plays into the hands of
authoritarian propagandists who argue that Western institutions are
corrupt, so they are no worse. The propagandists can blur the lines
between institutions that strive to uphold the law and those that
flout it while claiming they represent a legitimate variation on the
ideal.

Watchdog groups and human rights organisations, if they are unable to
bring legal action to bear or if it fails, have tried “naming and
shaming.” Sceptics doubt the efficacy of this tactic noting that
perpetrators of high-level crime such as international money
laundering, might be named but hardly shamed. The case of Azerbaijan
over the last decade, highlighted by the laundromat report, suggests
we revisit the strategy and arguments against it. Although the
perpetrators themselves seem shameless, not all their partners are
immune to the shame of publicity and public criticism.

Despite rampant global corruption, there are still laws and ethical
standards and there are still entities that strive to conform to them.
There are still international organisations that want, or can be
compelled, to uphold their own stated norms and ideals. Sponsors can
withdraw advertising and other support if their business partners
complain or shame them. Thus corruption can be made more difficult and
more costly.

The 2012 report Caviar Diplomacy, produced by European Stability
Initiative (ESI), documented Azerbaijani gifts and payments to CoE
members. After five years, the report was used to force the
resignation this past October of PACE President Pedro Agramunt,
considered a supporter of the Aliyev regime who quashed criticism of
Azerbaijan’s human rights record and mismanaged corruption charges
against CoE deputies.

International financial institutions (IFIs) that articulate
transparency and ethical standards among their basic principles have
not always followed those as a guide to their investments especially
in countries that produce oil, gas or need vast and lucrative
infrastructure investments. The World Bank has had a troubled history
in this regard.[2] In recent months the NGO Crude Accountability has
called on IFIs to link their investments more closely to transparency
and honesty/ legality. A present director of the European Bank for
Research and Development is identified in the Azerbaijani laundromat
as a recipient of more than 800,000 Euros.

Finally, naming and shaming deprives collaborators of an important
tool – claiming they did not know of illegality and abuses. Moreover,
naming and shaming – and documenting – gives ammunition to people and
organizations that fight for transparency, legality, and responsible
management of resources, and against erosion of the rule of law.

Creating a safe haven for one batch of money launderers puts out the
welcome mat for other crooks. Money laundering and other forms of
corruption are already infecting the international financial system
and aiding the drift of wealth to the top 1 per cent. Transparency
efforts can be used to stop it or international actors can be
complicit. There is no middle ground.

—

[1] This is the position of the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (EITI).

[2] For this and similar cases in Azerbaijan, see Audrey L. Altstadt,
Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan, (Woodrow Wilson Center
Press and Columbia University Press, 2017), Chapter 4.

—

The views expressed in this opinion editorial are the author’s own and
do not necessarily reflect Emerging Europe’s editorial policy.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__emerging-2Deurope.com_voices_the-2Dazerbaijani-2Dlaundromat-2Dwhy-2Dit-2Dmatters_&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=AYwMpVMf9yJVP1kyUmo-INdS-M5DlBm0kFJG8doREPw&s=YLEcLGH0PjQ-6rICRICUj9r1wlI10HOWBCThiXyHiRg&e=

Yervant1 · November 30, 2017

Panorama, Armenia

Nov 30 2017

Investigative journalists raise Azerbaijan’s laundromat at the European Parliament committee

Investigations into a slush fund used by Azerbaijan’s ruling class to pay off politicians in Europe looked similar to the Ta’ Xbiex-based Pilatus Bank case, The Times of Malta reported, adding the case was brought to a European Parliament committee heard on Tuesday.

As, Eva Jung, an investigative journalist who helped expose a complex $2.9 billion money-laundering scheme known as the Azerbaijani laundromat, said the methods and procedures exposed in Malta looked similar.

At least three European politicians, a journalist who wrote stories friendly to the regime and businessmen who praised the government were among the recipients of Azerbaijani laundromat money. Ms Jung said no Maltese politicians were exposed in the Azerbaijani laundromat.
Citing Maltese media reports, Ms Jung told the committee money flows from a Dubai-registered company controlled by the ruling Aliyev family in Azerbaijan were filtered through Pilatus Bank to Panama companies owned by Maltese politicians.

Simon Bendtsen, another investigative journalist, said payments in the Azerbaijani laundromat passed through Danske Bank in Estonia through the use of four shell companies in the UK.

It is reminded that a team of journalists analysed over 16,000 leaked transactions from Danske Bank. They found money was transferred from either State-owned companies or by powerful Azeris with close ties to the country’s elite. Large amounts of money from Azerbaijan, including from the “very powerful” Ministry for Emergency Situations, flowed through Danske Bank to European politicians, the committee heard.

The Times of Malta has reported that a front man for the Minister for Emergency Situations, Kamladdin Heydarov, opened a number of companies in Malta, linked to Pilatus Bank. The companies were set up by Nexia BT soon after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff, Keith Schembri, and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi visited Azerbaijan in December 2014.

Nexia BT were the same financial advisers used to open Panama companies for Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi, sheltered by trusts in New Zealand, which were not declared to the local tax authorities.

Slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had reported that Mr Heydarov was Pilatus Bank’s biggest client, with millions being deposited there.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/11/30/Investigative-journalists/1872539

gamavor · April 26, 2018

Eh, Pedro, Pedro...I told you not to mess with Armenians:)

https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2018/04/23/actualidad/1524503316_686293.html?id_externo_rsoc=FB_CM

Yervant1 · April 26, 2018

Thanks Gams, I'll post the translated article just in case they remove it after a while!

The Council of Europe accuses the senator of the PP Pedro Agramunt of corruption

The former president of the assembly of this institution received alleged payments from Azerbaijan to soften the criticism of that country

LUCIA ABELLÁN

Twitter

Brussels 24 APR 2018 - 08:43 CEST

1507309271_630771_1507309665_noticia_nor

Pedro Agramunt, during a meeting with a Turkish minister, in June 2016. ADEM ALTAN AFP

The visit to the Syrian president, Bachar el Asad, in March of 2017 was the last straw in a sea of corruption orchestrated by the Spanish Pedro Agramunt. This senator of the Popular Party, former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, participated for years in a corrupt strategy that conditioned decisions of this European body and reached its zenith with the meeting held in Damascus with the Syrian leader, behind the back of the Council of Europe. The independent investigation commissioned by this body, guardian of democracy and human rights in 47 European countries, has credited on Monday a "strong suspicion" that Agramunt was part of that scheme and that he used it to rise to the presidency .

Strange donations that boosted his candidacy for the presidency of this assembly, watches and liquors offered by political offices in Eastern countries and even suspicions of prostitution populate the report of the independent body of investigation disclosed by the Council of Europe. In almost 200 pages distributed with the organization's letterhead, the text includes the alleged corrupt practices carried out by several members of the assembly, including Agramunt, with the main objective of silencing the Council's criticisms of Azerbaijan. This politician of the Valencian PP, who had to leave the presidency of the Assembly of the Council of Europe after an unusual process of loss of confidence on the part of the institution,He maneuvered to get hold of that dossier and soften European criticisms of a country characterized by the lack of democratic mechanisms and the repression of opponents. He managed to stay ahead of the institution between January 2016 and October 2017.

MORE INFORMATION

Based on different studies - including the European Stability Initiative ideas laboratory, which uncovered the so-called caviar diplomacy exercised by the Azeri regime - the document highlights the "links between the success of Agramunt's career and his friendship with Azerbaijan." The authorities of this country provided 200,000 euros to boost his candidacy for the presidency of this body, according to the Freedom Files investigation. Other parliamentarians also received money "for them to run for different positions [in the Parliamentary Assembly] that would allow them to control the resolutions or influence them," he adds. This neighboring country of Russia spent 30 million euros on these pressure activities.

15,000 EUROS AT THE HOTEL

Beyond the suspicions of others, Agramunt himself offered some clue to his usual handling of large amounts of cash before the outbreak of the scandal of the visit to Syria. To distance the focus of that trip, for which Agramunt did not ask for authorization, the senator said that his hotel room in Strasbourg had been raided in the days after the meeting with El Asad. As a sign that what the alleged perpetrators were looking for was data, not money, he alleged that in his room there was "an envelope with 15,000 euros in cash that had not been touched," a witness told investigators. Far from exculpating him, Agramunt's words reinforced suspicions of bribes.

This work considers proven that Agramunt "played a key role in the adoption of several decisions of the Assembly perceived, directly or indirectly, as favorable to Azerbaijan". Even violated the rules of the institution to reveal to the Azeri authorities a confidential report on that country. Next, he "received instructions" about what he should include in those reports for which he was responsible. "There is evidence that Agramunt intervened in draft reports to soften criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities," the researchers point out.

From the beginning, the senator showed interest in getting this dossier. Agramunt himself intervened so that another member of the PP, the Swedish Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin, desisted from aspiring to be responsible for the supervision reports of Azerbaijan, a member of the Council of Europe since 2001. Finally, he obtained the position. The result was that "the tone and attitude towards the Azerbaijani authorities softened", from the constant criticism leveled in 2005 to the much friendlier attitude of 2010.

Gerald Knaus, president of the European Stability Initiative, welcomes the conclusions, although he suggests that they only reveal part of the corruption. "Only the tip of the iceberg is shown. But given the limitations, it is important and full of details, "says Knaus, who has revealed many of these irregularities.

In his reports on the country, Agramunt avoided condemning one of the most aired aspects of the institution in Strasbourg with respect to the Azeri authorities: the imprisonment of political dissidents. And although he visited them during his stays in Baku, "I never had anything to say to them, something that only happened in Azerbaijan." As an example of good relations with power, the report cites the presence of Agramunt in Baku two days before the official delegation of the parliamentary assembly arrived.

Dating with prostitutes

The document refers to testimonies from the secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly that say Agramunt "could be bribed with prostitutes" while participating in an electoral mission of the Council of Europe sent to Azerbaijan in 2015. One of those witnesses claims to have seen him one day return to your hotel with three young women. There are two other reported cases, with two women and one respectively. The authors of the work believe that the allegations are "not corroborated" and that, even if they met with prostitutes, "there is no evidence that it was part of a corrupt scheme."

A testimony from the same secretariat ensures that on one occasion he saw Agramunt with "a significant amount of cash" in his possession, an indication of having accepted bribes. The text also includes irregularities of the deputy of the PdeCAT Jordi Xuclà and of the exdiputado of the PP Agustín Conde.

With all these details, the research concludes that there is "a strong suspicion that Pedro Agramunt was part of an activity of a corrupt nature." Experts clarify that the Spanish politician has refused to offer his testimony before the investigation committee. The Council of Europe will now decide possible sanctions against the deputies who still make up the assembly.

Yervant1 · April 27, 2018

MEDIA RELEASE

Australian MP Peter Khalil slams Craig Kelly on Sky News: You had your trip paid by the Azerbaijani government

http://www.anc.org.au/images/cms/1/newsletter/uploads/sky-stoush.png

CANBERRA: Members of the Federal Parliament, Peter Khalil and Craig Kelly have clashed live on Sky News Australia, with the Member for Wills slamming the Member for Hughes for "talking down Australia's democracy in comparison to Azerbaijan's" after he labelled the recent presidential elections in the petro-dictatorship as "democratic" following a state-sponsored trip.

The elections Kelly observed, leading a delegation of Federal MPs in his role as Chair of the Australia - Azerbaijan Friendship Group, saw dictator Ilham Aliyev re-elected for a record 7-year term in office after recent changed to the Constitution supporting an extension to his rule. Incidentally, Kelly also observed the referendum changing these laws, before returning to Australia to say "we have a lot to learn from Azerbaijan's democracy".

Khalil laid into Kelly live on Sky News after highlighting that Azerbaijan's electoral commission released the result of the previous presidential elections in that country "a day before the actual election".

"You've got a despot who specialises in nepotism who hired his wife as Vice-President, and you're telling us that we've got something to learn from them," Khalil said. "That's just utterly ridiculous."

He continued: "You had your trip paid by the Azerbaijani government, I get it. But do not talk down Australia's democracy. We have an independent Australian Electoral Commission, we have one of the most thorough and rigid processes in one of the best, democratic systems in the world."

Kelly did concede, as he had in a Sydney Morning Herald article exposing his comments, that Azerbaijan has "had the same family ruling there as President - father and son - since the Soviet occupation ended", but he still referred to the country as "a fledgling democracy".

Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Executive Director, Haig Kayserian commented: "We thank Mr. Khalil for once again bringing Mr. Kelly's questionable loyalty to a regime that gives any dictatorship a run for its money when it comes to press and individual freedoms, has been declared as 'not free' by Freedom House, and regularly breaks an internationally-brokered ceasefire to fire across the Line of Contact, murdering Armenians on the border of the Republic of Artsakh."

In response to Kelly's consistent assertions that voter identification laws in Azerbaijan supercede the transparecy of Australia's electoral commission, Kayserian said: "Even in cases of voter fraud, Australia's due processes have revealed parties at fault and brought them to justice. In Azerbaijan, European observers have cited the lack of opposition and any comparable checks and balances."

Kayserian added: "We welcome Mr. Kelly has at least now admitted that Aliyev's Azerbaijan has had one surname leading it for as long as it has been independent, but to still refer to it as a democracy is as basketcase as the 'democracy' he is referring to."

ANC-AU, which has been at the forefront of bringing this saga to public attention, has requested to meet with Craig Kelly.

Yervant1 · May 24, 2018

OCCRP.org

May 23 2018

Baku’s Man in America

by Jonny Wrate

23 May 2018

The Azerbaijani Laundromat — a set of intertwined bank accounts used as a slush fund by the country’s elite to buy luxury goods, pay off European politicians, and launder money — also included payments to an individual working to influence American policy in the interest of Azerbaijan, an analysis of the data shows.

Overall, some €2.5 billion (US$ 2.9 billion) flowed through the Laundromat between 2012 and 2014. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and partners first revealed the scheme last September. A portion of the money was used to advance the Azerbaijani government’s political agenda, with some ending up in bank accounts belonging to European politicians who spoke highly of President Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarian regime even as it arrested journalists and opposition activists.

As it turns out, another recipient of Laundromat money — to the tune of a quarter million dollars — was an influential American oil and gas consultant of Azerbaijani origin who worked to influence US policy in his native country’s favor.

Adil Baguirov, a business owner based in Dayton, Ohio and a vocal member of the Azerbaijani diaspora, received the $253,150 transfer just months after a non-profit organization he runs, the Houston-based US Azeris Network, helped host a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, that was attended by 10 members of Congress. The junket was widely criticized, and investigated by the House Ethics Committee, for being secretly funded by Azerbaijan’s state oil company.

AZERBAIJANI RENAISSANCE

A separate series of payments from the Azerbaijani Laundromat went to Renaissance Associates, an organization based in Baku that contacted a Virgina-based lobbying firm to lobby the US government on its behalf. (See: US Lobbying Firm Launders Azerbaijan’s Reputation.)

The precise origins of the money Baguirov received are unknown, hidden behind secretive shell companies. But there is ample evidence that the authoritarian country’s ruling elite is behind it.

Baguirov’s Washington lobbying in the interests of Azerbaijan goes far beyond the 2013 conference. He has also helped organize other US-Azeri conferences in Washington, repeatedly testified before the House in favor of US military aid to Azerbaijan, served as the coordinator of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, and worked prominently in a Houston-based company that claims to have organized a trip by the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, to the White House.

Baguirov and his family run in elite circles back home. They are known to have close ties to President Aliyev – who awarded Baguirov a medal for his efforts in the US – and he and his father serve in numerous advisory roles to the Azerbaijani and Russian governments respectively. Baguirov did all this while holding American, Azerbaijani, and, it also appears, Russian citizenship until at least 2005.

His lobbying raises the question of whether he should have registered as a foreign agent, as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires people representing the interests of foreign countries to do. Although the statute is loosely defined and contains a number of exemptions and loopholes, Josh Rosenstein, a lawyer at Sandler Reiff, says “this case raises red flags and raises questions that the Justice Department may be interested in having answered.”

When contacted by OCCRP reporters for comment, Baguirov said the payment he received was none of their business.

An American Success Story

Adil Baguirov’s campaign website touts him as “An American Success Story”— a striving immigrant who came to the United States at the age of 16 to “study hard and pursue his dreams” of a better life.

He graduated from the University of Southern California in international relations and business administration, and also received a PhD in political science in Moscow. Today, however, he’s a local business owner and educational leader in Dayton, an Ohio city with a population of around 140,000.

In a 2016 feature on Dayton, Politico described Baguirov as “handsome and well-spoken enough that it was easy to imagine him going far [in politics] … just the sort of new American who Republican Party leaders said the party could bring to its side, if only it tried.”

In fact, he recently mulled the possibility of running for Ohio’s state senate as a Republican, though he ultimately decided to sit the 2018 election cycle out in order to, as he told Dayton Magazine, “take a little time off.”

According to the magazine, the businessman has “spent his entire life committed to the idea of education, both for himself and others.” Indeed, his first foray into local politics began five years ago, when he was elected to Dayton’s school board, a position he held until 2017, when he resigned more than a month before the end of his term after local activist David Esrati discovered that he appeared to have lied about his residential address.

But, as it turns out, Baguirov’s eligibility for the school board is not the only controversy surrounding the businessman.

Just one week after he was elected to the position, a consulting company he runs called Turbillion LLC received a payment of US$ 253,150 from Hilux Services, a shell firm that is part of the Azerbaijani Laundromat. The reason for the payment is listed, cryptically, as “to the contract.”

While Baguirov lives in Ohio, Turbillion is registered in Wyoming, a state popular with those looking to create secretive companies due to its tax-free incentives and provision of anonymity.

Turbillion has no website and no publicly known activity, and it’s just one of a number of similar companies controlled by Baguirov. For example, it shares the Dayton mailing address of Nobel Brothers Pictures LLC, another Wyoming-based company which is allegedly producing a Hollywood movie about the history of the Azerbaijani oil industry.

Scarves, Tea Sets, and Rugs

Baguirov’s Houston-based non-profit, the US Azeris Network (USAN), describes itself as a “genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network” for Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic Americans, “created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.” Much of its activity, however, appears to advance the interests of Azerbaijan.

Six months before Baguirov received the Laundromat payment, the organization helped organize a two-day conference in Baku called “US-Azerbaijan Relations: Vision for Future.” It was the second of three annual conferences meant to celebrate and strengthen the countries’ relationship, with a focus on energy security, stability, and regional cooperation in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Basin.

The conferences came at a sensitive time for US-Azerbaijani relations. At the time, a consortium of major oil companies — including Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR, BP, Russia’s Lukoil, and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) — was seeking exemptions from US sanctions against Iran, which affected its work in the vast Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea and its plans for the so-called Southern Gas Corridor to pipe the gas to Europe.

So it was noteworthy that the Baku meeting in 2013 was attended by 11 members of Congress, 10 of whom were paid for, and over 30 of their staff — and that, according to a confidential report by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) obtained by the Washington Post, they were lavished with silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000.

Upon their return to the US, many of these lawmakers spoke favorably about Azerbaijan and promoted the Southern Gas Corridor project. Five days after the conference, President Obama signed an executive order further tightening US sanctions on Iran. But it included an exception for “certain activities relating to the pipeline project to supply natural gas from the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe and Turkey,” according to a statement by the White House press secretary.

In invitations sent out by representatives of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil firm, Baguirov’s USAN was initially named as one of the conference’s organizers, alongside another Houston-based non-profit, the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians. But without explanation, Baguirov’s organization vanished from the list — a fact that an OCE investigator found worth raising questions about. Instead, a third Houston-based non-profit, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, had taken its place.

According to the OCE, this organization had secretly funneled $750,000 to pay for travel, accommodation and venue rental from the state-owned SOCAR.

The estimated proposed budget for the conference was $1.5 million. But it appears that its organizers had trouble securing the necessary funds. Two managers from ConocoPhillips told OCE investigators that Kemal Oksuz, the president of both hosting organizations, asked the corporation for a $250,000 sponsorship. But it eventually agreed to provide just $10,000, as did two other sponsors, McDermott and BP.

Reporters found no evidence that either Baguirov or his non-profit helped cover the shortfall. But his consulting company received the $253,150 Azerbaijani Laundromat payment six months later.

Adil Baguirov speaks during a demonstration outside the Armenian Embassy in Washington DC in remembrance of the Khojaly Massacre, committed by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.Credit: US Azeris Network’s Facebook page

The Caucus Coordinator

The 2013 conference in Baku was just one example of Baguirov’s years-long efforts to lobby for his home country in the United States. The two other conferences in the series, which both took place in Washington, were openly organized by USAN.

In 2009, he and USAN sent out invitations to another planned conference on US-Azerbaijan relations in Washington with the Baku-based Center for Strategic Studies (SAM). Established in 2007 by presidential decree, SAM is an Azerbaijani governmental think tank.

Baguirov has also been active in the halls of Congress. Around 2003, he began working for Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) as Special Advisor on Russia and the former Soviet Union. Weldon, who maintains close ties with both Baguirov and his father, was defeated in 2006 not long after the Justice Department investigated him for allegedly steering to his daughter’s lobbying firm almost $1 million in consulting contracts from two Russian companies and a Serbian foundation.

Weldon founded the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus in 2004, together with fellow Congressman Solomon Ortiz (D-TX). Congressional caucuses allow a group of members to strategize on how to garner publicity for and impact policy on a shared interest.

Baguirov served as the Caucus’ coordinator and allegedly travelled with Congressional delegations to the former Soviet Union in 2003 and 2004. Both Ortiz and a former advisor who also helped to build up the Caucus would later lobby on behalf of another recipient of Azerbaijani Laundromat funds (See: US Lobbying Firm Launders Azerbaijan’s Reputation). Of the 10 members of Congress whose trips to the 2013 Baku conference were paid for, seven were members of the Azerbaijan Caucus.

Between 2008 and 2016, Baguirov was also invited almost annually to recommend foreign economic and military aid budgets for Azerbaijan and Armenia to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Matters. In some years, other representatives of USAN and the Karabakh Foundation — another of Baguirov’s non-profit organizations — also testified.

The transcripts of his testimonies show Baguirov acting as a counter to Armenian interests in Washington (the two countries are fierce rivals over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region). When he first testified in 2008, he recommended greater equity between aid given to the two countries, but by 2012, he was calling for aid to Armenia to be reduced to zero, while requesting $26 million from USAID and $3.9 million in military aid for Azerbaijan.

Protesting the State Department’s proposed budget for the financial year 2014, he claimed that “someone” had “twisted and changed the spirit” of the United States’ “neutral” position. USAN publicly accused Armenia that year of providing the Committee with “false or exaggerated information, whilst asking for tens of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money” through its “paid representative of the Armenian lobby.” Throughout his testimonies, Baguirov has remained silent on the Azerbaijan government’s notoriously poor human rights record.

Worldwide Strategic Influencers

While lobbying in Washington, DC, Adil Baguirov was also the Executive Vice President of International Affairs for Worldwide Strategic Energy, Inc. (WSE), a Houston-based company that offers its “strong business and political ties” to help prospective clients capitalize on hydrocarbon development opportunities in “politically complicated countries,” including Azerbaijan. It also claims to have “strategic alliances in place to do direct work with” a number of state oil companies, including Azerbaijan’s SOCAR.

An internal draft memo from 2007, leaked to investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein, claims that a subsidiary of WSE, Caspian Alliance, had been providing “strategic advice to the government of Azerbaijan.” It further notes that “the team is already beginning to capitalize on this relationship by working on several business projects and is currently negotiating acquisition of specific hydrocarbon leases.” The memo includes a photograph of Baguirov — who is described earlier in the document as the company’s “most senior expert on Russia and the former CIS” — with President Aliyev.

Adil Baguirov with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.Credit: Screenshot of leaked WSE policy memo

WSE’s president and CEO at the time was Stephen P. Payne, a lobbyist forced to resign from an advisory committee to the Department for Homeland Security after the Times secretly recorded him offering access to top US officials for up to $750,000.

Baguirov’s father Togrul is also listed as a WSE advisory board member, and is described as someone with “opportunities to interface with any Russian energy company.”

The elder Baguirov is an influential figure in Russian oil and gas, serving as special advisor to the country’s Prime Minister, the Minister of Energy, and the energy companies Gazprom and Lukoil.

The company’s involvement with Azerbaijan has not been limited to oil and gas. World Strategic Partners, the predecessor company of WSE, for which Baguirov also served as a vice president for international affairs, claimed to have arranged a visit by Aliyev to the White House and to have “implemented an aggressive media campaign to discredit the Azeri opposition candidates, allowing the government for freedom in enforcing election curfews and laws.”

Foreign Agency?

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a statute by the US Department of Justice that requires agents representing the interests of foreign powers to disclose their relationship with the foreign government.

Baguirov has made no such disclosures despite his activities and his family’s extensive relationships with Azerbaijan’s government and ruling family.

In the 2000s, he served as an advisor on the Committee for Defense and Security of the country’s parliament. In July 2011, President Aliyev awarded him a medal for strengthening the friendship among peoples and developing the Azerbaijani diaspora.

THE BAGUIROVS AND THE ALIYEVS

Adil is not the first Baguirov to have ties with the presidential family.

In the 1990s, his grandfather – a former KGB agent – reportedly worked as the director of the residence of the late former President Heydar Aliyev; his father Togrul also told local media that he knew Heydar Aliyev personally.

Togrul has also said that the private NGO he chairs, the Baku Nobel Heritage Fund, which awards “Emanuel Nobel Memorial Medals” — including one for former Congressman Curt Weldon — was created under the patronage and initiative of Heydar’s son and current president, Ilham Aliyev.

Any person who is directly or indirectly supervised, directed, funded or subsidized in whole or major part by a foreign principal must register as a foreign agent on FARA. However, Gabriel Gillett, a lawyer at Jenner & Block, says “the statute is quite broad and it’s subject to interpretation, so it may well come down to what exactly the relationship is between a foreign government and the person in the US, and their actions.”

Reporters also discovered that, while lobbying the US government in the interests of Azerbaijan, Baguirov likely had three citizenships. An application to the UN Economic and Social Council for consultative status which was submitted by USAN shows that Baguirov held both US and Azerbaijani citizenship in 2013. Company records for Petrogaz, a Russian oil company in which he owned shares, reveal that, in the mid-2000s, he also had Russian citizenship.

“His connections and multiple citizenships alone would not be enough necessarily to trigger [FARA] registration requirements,” says Josh Rosenstein, the lawyer at Sandler Reiff. “However, there would likely be enough for an investigator to want to ask detailed questions about the interplay and relationships … to see whether there was in fact an ‘agency’ at capacity here.”

Baguirov did not respond to questions about his lobbying work.

Additional reporting and research by Chris Benevento, Paul Radu, and Lejla Sarcevic.

https://www.occrp.org/en/azerbaijanilaundromat/bakus-man-in-america

Yervant1 · May 31, 2018

The Herald (Glasgow), Scotland

May 29, 2018 Tuesday

Scots firm launders cash used to pay US lobbyists

by David Leask

http://www.heraldscotland.com/resources/images/7431148.jpg?type=article-full

ONE of Europe's most corrupt and authoritarian regimes used a Scottish firm to secretly buy influence in America, investigators say.

Figures close to the government of Azerbaijan have long been suspected of using laundered money to pay for a slush fund for sympathetic politicians in the West.

Last year the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that some £2 billion had been smuggled out of the oil-rich former Soviet nation through a complex web of shell firms, some of them Scottish.

Now the investigative journalism group says that some of that money was recycled back into Azerbaijan and then on to the United States to pay a lobbying firm.

Their research centres on two anonymously owned shell firms, one an English limited liability partnership and the other a Scottish Limited Partnership (SLP).

The SLP, Glasgow-registered Hilux Services, was one of the core entities in what the OCCRP called the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a scheme to recycle cash of an unknown origin believed to be partly linked to the state.

OCCRP said some $1.6 million was paid by Hilux and a Birmingham firm to what it called a mysterious organisation called Renaissance Associates in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

Renaissance, OCCRP reported, then paid a US lobbying firm "to orchestrate praise for Azerbaijan and had its representatives make thousands of dollars in campaign donations, including to Senators and Representatives who sat on committees which determine foreign aid budgets".

OCCRP named a parliamentarian charged with cleaning up the image of Azerbaijan and its leader, Ilham Aliyev as being behind the lobbying.

Renaissance has no website and no contact information. OCCRP said Renaissance's only reported activity had been a 14-year-old relationship with Bob Lawrence & Associates (BL&A), a lobbying firm in Alexandria, Virginia. BL&A under US law had to reveal it was paid $1,533,000 by Renaissance, about the same amount the Azerbaijani firm got from Hilux and the English business associated with the Laundromat.

BL&A, among other things, has lobbied America on Azerbaijan's interest in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory disputed by the country and its neighbour, Armenia.

The firm, however, denies working for the Azerbaijan government. The mysterious Renaissance is not a government agency.

Hilux Services, meanwhile, was dissolved in 2016.

It is not the first SLP to be named in an lobbying row.

Earlier this year The Herald revealed Biniatta Trade paid a Washington lobbyist to help Balkan conservatives access Donald Trump's White House.

Biniatta Trade emerged as an unlikely funder of a campaign to promote Albania's right-wing opposition in America.

The firm claims to trade in grain and cloth from its prestigious address at a virtual office in Edinburgh's New Town.

Such firms are routinely marketed in as secrecy vehicles in the former Soviet Union. Biniatta shares founding partners with entities linked with Russia and Ukraine, sparking news stories in the US suggesting it was a Russian front.

However, shared formal partners may only indicate the shell firm was manufactured by the same agency as those used by Russians. A Northern Ireland partnership, meanwhile, was used to lobby for Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16254637.Scots_firm_launders_cash_used_to_pay_US_lobbyists/

MosJan · June 18, 2018

http://asekose.am/en_US/news/37/266204-azerbaijans-secret-laundromat-scheme-pays-15-million-to-us-lobbying-firm.html

Azerbaijan’s Secret ‘Laundromat’ Scheme Pays $1.5 Million to US Lobbying Firm

2018-05-29 23:23:23
By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The website of Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed last week the possibly illegal lobbying in the United States funded by Azerbaijani sources.
Investigative journalist Jonny Wrate reported on May 23, 2018 that “some of the money that passed through the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a secret money laundering scheme and slush fund that saw $2.9 billion flow out of the country between 2012 and 2014, ended up in the hands of a purportedly private Azerbaijani organization that hired a Virginia firm to lobby the US government for more than a decade.”

OCCRP had reported earlier that “other monies from the fund were used to advance the Azerbaijani government’s political agenda, with some ending up in bank accounts belonging to European politicians who spoke highly of President Ilham Aliyev’s regime even as it arrested journalists and political activists. The precise origins of the funds are unknown, hidden behind secretive shell companies. But there is ample evidence that the authoritarian country’s ruling elite is behind them.”

Last week, OCCRP revealed that two shell companies established by Azerbaijan “funneled over a million and a half dollars to a mysterious Baku-based organization called Renaissance Associates” which in turn hired “a US lobbying firm to orchestrate praise for Azerbaijan and had its representatives make thousands of dollars in campaign donations, including to Senators and Representatives who sat on committees that determine foreign aid budgets.”

Yervant1 · June 19, 2018

Another Anti-Armenian Writer Exposed

For Making Baseless Allegations

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

It seems that not a week passes without coming across another
mysterious writer who undertakes to contribute a puff piece about
Azerbaijan and to undermine the reputation of Armenia and Armenians
around the world.

The latest such writer is Peter Tase who posted an article titled,
“Russia’s Foreign Agents in America: Trump Connection of Armenian
Lobbyists,” on June 11, 2018 on the Eurasia Review website.

This extremely biased article resorts to exaggerations and untrue
allegations in order to link Armenia and various Armenian individuals
to Russia, and even more surprisingly, to Pres. Donald Trump.

To begin with, Tase disparages Iranian-Armenian Gevork Vartanian’s
praiseworthy actions during World War II by calling him “one of the
most prolific Soviet Armenian spies.” In fact, Vartanian provided a
major service to the entire world by thwarting Hitler’s plans to
assassinate Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt while meeting as allies
at the Tehran Conference in 1943. Tase undermines his own credibility
by mentioning that CIA director Stansfield Turner and upper echelons
of the agency trusted Vartanian. Why would they trust Vartanian if he
were such a bad guy? Incredibly, Tase even states that he is
suspicious of Vartanian because he spoke Armenian.

Tase then picks on two Russian Armenian journalists—Margarita Simonyan
and Gayane Chichakyan—who work for RT (Russia Today) TV. Their only
guilt is that they are “good looking” women, and without any evidence
Tase accuses them of being “ethnically Armenian, as are many other
‘Russian’ agents of influence.”

Next is the turn of Artur Chilingarov, Vice Speaker of the Russian
Duma, whom Tase attacks for being an Armenian. Chilingarov’s fault is
that he was sitting at the next table over from Russian President
Vladimir Putin at a banquet in Moscow. Chilingarov was honored by the
Soviet Union and the Russian Federation for his exploits as a
prominent polar explorer—and not for being an Armenian, as Tase
claims.

Perhaps the most sinister part of Tase’s article is falsely claiming
that Armenian-American reporter Emil Sanamyan is “a foreign agent.”
This is a completely untrue allegation. Mr. Sanamyan told me that he
is not now, nor has he ever been registered with the U.S. Justice
Department as “a foreign agent.” I hope Mr. Sanamyan will sue Peter
Tase and his website for damaging his reputation. To show the degree
of Tase’s blind hatred for anything Armenian, he accuses Sanamyan of
working for “Americans for Artsakh,” an organization “established to
bring legitimacy to the war crimes and illegal occupation by the
Russian-backed Armenian military that has been ruthlessly perpetrated
(long before Ukraine and Georgia, the Russian government has used
Armenian soldiers to occupy Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, arrest
development and derail a Pro-Western course of Azerbaijan).” Not a
single word is true in that sentence. The Russian government did not
use Armenian soldiers. Armenians liberated themselves from
Azerbaijan’s oppressive regime which committed mass crimes against
Armenians of Artsakh for decades. In fact, Russian soldiers sided with
Azerbaijan and killed many innocent inhabitants of Artsakh.
Furthermore, “Americans for Artsakh” was a non-profit funded by
Armenian-Americans. Sanamyan told me that he worked there as an unpaid
employee. In addition, when Sanamyan worked at the Office of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Washington, D.C., the organization was
not yet registered with the U.S. Justice Department as “a foreign
agent.” Also, Tase makes up a fake title by claiming that “Sanamyan
was in charge of information warfare and propaganda as Director of the
NKR Public Affairs Office.”

There are also several minor errors in Tase’s article which show his
lack of knowledge of Armenian issues. For example, Tase writes about
Armenia’s independence from “Soviet Russia,” instead of the Soviet
Union. The second nonsense is Tase’s comment on a photo of Pres. Serzh
Sargsyan with Pres. and Mrs. Trump at the United Nations in New York.
Tase attributes the photo to the lobbying effort of the
Armenian-American community. However, no lobbying was necessary. If
Tase did a little more research, he would have discovered another
photo of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev with Pres. and Mrs. Trump
at the UN, along with photos of many other heads of state. Another
intentional misrepresentation by Tase is that Sanamyan’s wife, a
graduate of Cass Business School, City University London, was one of
the “Major Donors and Sponsors” of the University in 2012. Tase fails
to mention that Sanamyan’s wife was listed under the smallest amount
category—less than $1,000—which does not make her a major donor.

Tase’s next attack on Armenians is their alleged connection to Pres.
Trump. This is where Tase makes his most ignorant accusation. The
reality is that there are hardly any Armenians who know Pres. Trump;
so Tase invents imaginary connections. Tase even dares to misrepresent
my 2016 article headlined, “Armenians Should Reach Out to Trump
Through Republican Friends in Congress.” If Tase was an honest
reporter, he would have quoted from my article which stated:
“Armenian-American ties with the President-elect are practically
non-existent.”

Tase also misrepresents the statement posted by Aram Hamparian,
Executive Director of ANCA, offering to work with the newly-elected
President. There is no indication in that sentence of any link between
Armenian-Americans and Trump. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Tase
comes up with a totally unknown name, Andy Surabian, as “another
Armenian political operative deep inside the Trump White House.”
Surabian is described as “Steve Bannon’s political advisor in the
Trump administration and a campaign veteran.” Unfortunately for Tase,
neither Bannon nor Surabian work at the White House anymore.

Tase then mentions the name of Keith Nahigian, as “perhaps the most
influential and high-ranking Armenian Diaspora member and registered
lobbyist associated with the Trump campaign…who was tapped to head
Trump’s transition team in 2017.” This is yet another red herring.
Nahigian has no connection with the Armenian community. I sent him an
email two years ago and I am still waiting for his answer. That’s how
close Nahigian is to the Armenian community.

Tase prematurely refers to congressional candidate Danny Tarkanian
(R-Nevada) as a member of “the Armenian lobby with access to President
Trump.” Should Tarkanian win his House seat in November, we shall be
able to determine how close is his connection to the White House.

Incredibly, Tase mentions Kim Kardashian as an Armenian
“home-porn-turned-Twitter lobbyist” who has met Trump on numerous
occasions—most recently in May 2018,” successfully securing a pardon
from Pres. Trump for a (non-Armenian) grandmother serving a
life-sentence in prison. Tase would have made a more convincing case
if Kardashian had made a request from Pres. Trump on an Armenian
issue. There has been no link between Kardashian as “an Armenian
lobbyist” and Pres. Trump.

Tase falsely concludes his baseless and shameful article by stating:
“These extensive and deep links to the incumbent inexperienced
president and his campaign create potential national security
implications and deserve scrutiny to ensure that Putin’s ongoing
meddling into the U. S. Homeland would crumble and miserably fail.”

I don’t think Pres. Trump needs Armenian-Americans to establish
communication with Pres. Putin. Contrary to Tase’s unfounded
allegations, Pres. Trump has had a direct link to the Kremlin for a
long time and does not need anyone else’s assistance.

MosJan · June 21, 2018

Yervant1 · June 23, 2018

Panorama, Armenia

June 22 2018

Politics 13:19 22/06/2018 Armenia

Expert urges Armenia’s state bodies to identify who's behind U.S. Bell-412 copters sales to Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani military is reported to have purchased U.S.-made Bell-412 helicopters which will be showcased at the country’s military parade in Baku on 26 June.

It is unclear how the Bell-412 copters produced by American aircraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter reached Baku given the U.S. legislation banning the country to supply arms to a party to conflict, political scientist Suren Sargsyan said in a Facebook post.

He calls on the Armenian states structures and U.S.-based organizations to take urgent efforts towards identifying who is behind the copters sales to Azerbaijan.

“The Armenian Foreign and Defense Ministeries, as well as the U.S.-based organizations should immediately take action to figure out who has sold or resold the helicopters to Baku,” Sargsyan stressed.

The armed forces of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and a number of other countries operate Bell-412 helicopters, the expert added.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2018/06/22/Bell-412-copters-sales-Azerbaijan/1968330

Yervant1 · June 29, 2018

Asbarez.com

PACE Bans 14 Members for Corrupt Exchanges with Azerbaijan

11 hours ago

http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pace.jpg

Chambers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

STRASBOURG—The Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) examined corruption reports during its summer session and determined that 14 assembly members had violated ethical standards by engaging in corrupt activities with Azerbaijan. Specifically, members had accepted gifts and other monetary bribes from the Azeri government to lobby on its behalf and present Azerbaijan in a positive light.

In a report published April 15, the Committee on Rules of Procedure stated that, “The allegations made and the facts supporting them are examined under four principal headings: (1) the various activities in favour of Azerbaijan within PACE; (2) the exchange of gifts and different forms of benefits; (3) the influence of extra-institutional actors (lobbyists); and (4) money and other corruptive activities being used as a means of fostering Azerbaijan’s interests in PACE.”

Arpine Hovhannisyan, the deputy speaker of Armenian parliament and the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, said the committee has sanctioned the parliamentarians who are mentioned in the reports — she explained that the group is comprised of both former and current PACE members. The sanctioned parliamentarians include Alain Destexhe, Luca Volontè, Agustín Conde, Karin Strenz, Elkhan Suleymanov, Göran Lindblad, Tadeusz Iwiński, among seven others.

“As I had explained earlier, the independent Investigative Body of PACE had presented its report on corruption processes in PACE at the spring sitting,” Hovhannisyan said. “The Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs Committee immediately touched upon the report. The committee continued working over the reports during the summer session.”

The committee ruled that the 14 PACE members who were found to have breached the organization’s Code of Conduct should be deprived of the right to access Council of Europe and Parliamentary Assembly premises for life.

This was the third Rules Committee hearing concerning the conduct of individual members and served as a follow-up to the Investigation Body’s report. Two previous hearings took place April 25 and May 15, and the committee will continue its hearings of current and former PACE members at its next meeting.

http://asbarez.com/173265/pace-bans-14-members-for-corrupt-exchanges-with-azerbaijan/

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