Azerbaijanis at the Czech Sea: Once as a Business, Another Time as an Admission Ticket

Azerbaijani investors took a liking to the Czech region of South Bohemia. They bought land there and also planned grandiose constructions, which, however, have stagnated somewhere in the no man’s land between plans and their realisation. It is very strategic to own a company or a property in the Czech Republic, because they can serve as a tool through which one can launder money or to get easy access into the Schengen zone. Who is behind the money flowing into South Bohemia, and who owns the companies peacefully sleeping near the centre of the regional capital? We’ll walk you through several stories which stand out in the extremely complex net of contacts and family relationships. 

https://www.investigace.cz/azerbajdzanci-u-ceskeho-more-jednou-jako-byznys-podruhe-jako-vstupenka/

In the web of companies with Czech and Azeri owners, out of which almost all reside at the same address, and in whose documents we can find the same names, we can find people connected to the Azeri government or companies, but also completely untraceable businessmen. There are several destinations that are important to our story including the well known Lipno water reservoir and the regional capital Ceske Budejovice. A less known location of interest is the fast-growing suburban area called Hlincova Hora - Kodetka, near the regional capital.  

The genesis of the story of Azerbaijani business in the Czech Republic goes as far as 2000, when a company called AKAR-CB s.r.o. registered in Ceske Budejovice by a member of the influential Immaverdiyev family. The company resided at Kodetka, where it later acquired a  building plot, but at that time, the ownership changed to different Immamverdiyev family members - Rufat, a former head of IBA in London, and Kamila. Rufat is also the managing director of a company called LECO-CB s.r.o., whose Azeri owner is currently being investigated by British financial authorities. Another land plot at Kodetka, which lies next to the already mentioned one and is similarly unkept, belongs to another Azerbaijani owned company - ALPS s.r.o., which also plans on building a hotel at the Lipno dam. This company is owned by an Azeri living in London, whose father was, until recently, one of the ruling elites in their homeland. 

On paper, two of these companies have a common denominator - a mysterious businessman Elchin Kazimov (note: the second article)

The story continues at the beginning of 2008, during which another three Azeri companies were registered in the regional capital Ceske Budejovice. They all had the same managing directors - Miroshnicenko family. Igor, Juriy and Viktoria Miroshnicenko are also the proud owners of the company KIBUL s.r.o., which also resides at Kodetka. In the family house at the end of a dead-end street, hidden behind an aged apple tree, have since 1996 resided several Azeri companies. That includes one of the trinity founded in 2008 - LECO-CB s.r.o.. The Miroshnichenko family was also one of the first contacts of Kazimov in Czech Republic. The family, of Ukrainian origin, still lives in the house, according to their neighbours. However, you wouldn’t find their names or the names of any companies on the doorbell.

The Shoppaholic

LECO-CB s.r.o. belongs to an Azerbaijani living in London, Zamira Hajiyeva and her daughter Leyla. Hajiyeva is the wife of a former CEO of IBA in London, Jahangir Hajiyev, who is currently serving his 15 years sentence for extensive fraud and embezzlement in his Caucasian homeland. Hajiyev claims he is innocent and in fact a victim of running afoul with Azerbaijan’s corrupt ruling family, the BBC reported.

 According to the sentencing, however, he siphoned funds form the bank during his years in the management. Hajiyev worked as the head of the bank, which is partially state owned, between the years 2001 to 2015, when he left for health reasons. The official statement made by the Azeri Ministry of Finance, states that “the bank granted unlawful loans between 2009-2015”, and Hajiyev was supposed to siphon more than 6,3 billion USD from it. The money was then hidden in offshore accounts mostly owned by anonymous companies.  Hajiyev was sentenced in 2016. The fact that his wife, Zamira Hajiyeva, is a passionate shopaholic of anything luxurious probably didn’t help his case either. One of her payment methods were, unfortunately, credit cards issued by the very bank her husband stole money from. Her spending spree - be it for jewellery, private jet, golf course, or a luxurious apartment - didn’t go unnoticed by the watchful eye of the British financial authorities. In 2018, Hajiyeva was asked to explain the sources of her and her husband’s wealth. She made an appeal against the order, which was denied, and so the British government keeps all her assets frozen. 

Money disappearing from the IBA is nothing new, it was already described by OCCRP project “Azerbaijani Laundromat”, which describes the flow of money, being laundered through British companies and then going towards bribes or purchasing real estate. 

What is the purpose of LECO-CB in the Czech Republic is unknown. Elchin Kazimov, the managing director of a different Azeri company, which resides in the same building, claims he doesn’t know Hajiyeva and knows nothing of her company as well. Based on the accounts, only made public until 2014, we can deduce that the company is sleeping, which means it doesn’t generate any profits nor activity. This is also indicated by the fact that LECO-CB’s managing director is Rufat Immamverdiyev, who has been dead for 6 years. 

One explanation for companies, which appear out of thin air and seemingly don’t generate any business, can be the access it grants to its owner - when a foreigner from outside of the Schengen Zone founds a company within it, it gives them an advantage in reaching a permanent residence status, which then gives them the possibility to travel through the Zone freely. 

Family Business

Besides LECO-CB, Rufat Immamverdiyev acted as a managing director or an associate in several other companies residing in Ceske Budejovice. However, his main occupation was the head of IBA in London, which he did for 13 years, before his passing in April 2015, which means he worked at the bank at the same time as Jahangir Hajiyev. According to comments on his Facebook profile, he died of a heart failure, but in Azerbaijani media, information appeared that he committed suicide, because Hajiyev borrowed money using his name and never paid it back. 

Rufat Immamverdiyev with his relative Kamila (note: there are two other associates -     Afak Tahirova, Lala Huseynbayova - we didn’t include them in the story for simplification and also because we don’t have anything on them, maybe you will) ultimately took control of the company AKAR-CB, which currently owns a building plot at Kodetka. Same as LECO-CB, it is not known what the company does. Elchin Kazimov, whom we are already familiar with, and who was a part of the ownership structure of the company until 2018, explained that it’s a family business, which he left because of divorce (note: from Kamila). Rufat Immamverdiyev, who passed away in 2015, is also still the owner of an apartment in Hluboka nad Vltavou, where Kamila lives. 

The Ship that didn’t Sail

Downhill from the plot of overgrown weeds belonging to AKAR-CB, lies another building plot with similarly wild vegetation, which, among the surrounding new and pretty houses with tidy gardens, doesn’t look very pretty. The owner of the second land is the company ALPS s.r.o., owned by an Azeri living in London. The plot is currently listed on sale for more than 9 million Czech crowns with the recommendation to build a terraced house there. Owner of ALPS is called Juma Ahmadzada, and he is the son of - as of recent - former head of water resources management. The official statement signed by president Alyiev goes into little detail on why Ahmadzada senior was dismissed. However, it is possible that it has something to do with the information released by OCCRP about a suspicious chain of events, which led to Ahmadzada junior getting a luxurious apartment in London, paid for by an anonymous company, the very same company, which a Turkish businessman hired for consultation services and who later won a lucrative public tender organised by Ahmadzada senior’s office. 

Juma Ahmadzada’s wife, Gunel Rustamova, is the daughter of the head of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, Elman Rusamov. The couple caught the public eye thanks to their fairytale riches, which, however, come from unknown sources. The businesses the couple do don’t appear to be very lucrative. 

Gunel stood at the beginning of the company ALPS along with her husband. The managing director of the firm was at that time no one else than Juriy Miroshnichenko. In 2014, Rustamova left the company and the managing director spot went on to Elchin Kazimov’s hands, who says that Ahmadzada junior is his decades-long friend. That is why he suggested the two friends collaborate, because they “could do nice business here (in the Czech Republic)”. A couple of weeks before their joint business was official, ALPS bought the building of an old army sanatorium from the Ministry of Defence. The so-called Volareza was located on the dam of the Lipno water reservoir and was for sale from 2011 - but no one wanted it.   

The Azeri investors paid 26,1 million Czech crowns for the ugly brown-and-white building. The initial plan was to reconstruct the object. Jiri Hulka, the mayor of the village Hurka where the real estate lies, explains that it was a welcomed investment at first. The investors even employed some of the locals to guard the object for 24 hours a day. In summer 2018 came heavy machinery and brought the old building to the ground. Only things left are concrete groundworks, a pile of rubble and a wastewater treatment plant. The planned large glass and wooden ship-shaped wellness hotel remains till this day a drawing on paper. (note: I can send you the plans, if you want)

“We thought it’s gonna go as smoothly as in Azerbaijan. We apply for the building permit and the hotel will be ready in two years,” explains the managing director of ALPS, Elchin Kazimov, why there are no changes to the demolition site and immediately blames the tedious Czech bureaucracy. “We waited for 6 years for the permit!” Any visitor coming to Hurka, by the brinks of the beautiful “Czech sea”, first sees the unsightly ruins, which are quite an eyesore among the picturesque surroundings. The residents of Hurka are, logically, not happy about it, which confirms the village mayor, Jiri Hulka. He does welcome the idea of a wellness hotel, as it would bring a new kind of clientele into the village. Still, he has some reservations. “Nobody talked to us when they sold the building - there is the issue of the wastewater treatment plant, which serves the whole municipality here, and is now on private property,” Hulka explains. “Yes, the investors keep in touch with my office, but it’s all taking too long. I am worried that all we’ll be left with is just this, the rubble from an old building,” he sighs. Kazimov explained that the new plan is to build an apartment complex, which could be for rent for tourists, because a hotel seems like a risky investment in the times of coronavirus.      

Before Kazimov came into the picture, ALPS seemed to be another sleeping company and by the information in its accounting documents, it was three-quarters of a million Czech crowns in the red. (note: 750 000 CZK) In 2014, things began to move and the accounts suddenly showed 63 million Czech crowns came to the firm - a part of the money was a loan, explained by enclosed documents, the origin of the rest is unknown. Kazimov himself claims he doesn’t know where the money came from. And, in his opinion, it would be rude to ask his friend Ahmadzada about the source of his finances. The loan could go towards the acquisition of the old army sanatorium, evaluated at 26,1 million CZK. What happened to the rest, almost 37 million CZK, remains a mystery.

ALPS submitted two versions of accounts for the year 2014. In that case, the one submitted later on is considered to be the valid one. The first document states “liabilities to shareholders” to be 35,3 million CZK, the second one, submitted at a later date, states for the same category the number 63,6 million CZK, which is almost double. “Similar financial operations are usually the shareholder’s deposit of funds into the company, to cover, for example, operating costs. In a form of assets, the sum usually appears as a short-term financial capital, which means money. This, however, is not the case, because the sum appeared as “other receivables”. This can mean that the owner of the company put money in it, which he immediately borrowed to a third person, which created the claim, or he put into the company the claim itself,” explains a financial analyst Jakub Vojtisek. ALPS hasn't submitted any accounts since 2014.  -0-