New Revelations of Bribing European Deputies from Baku - ESI Study

European Stability Initiative has published the second part of its investigation Caviar Diplomacy: European Swamp the day before: 

http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=181

This investigation continues revelations of corruption schemes, organized by the Azerbaijani authorities, in which dozens of high-ranking European politicians have been involved.

Among those active lobbying the interests of official Baku they name the Chairman of the People's Party Group in the PACE Luca Volonte, prosecuted by the Italian Prosecutor’s Office.

By agreeing to cooperate with the investigation, Volonte called the names of many European politicians who received money from Azerbaijan. The tracks also lead to the current Chairman of the PACE Pedro Agramunt.

Volonte himself personally received about 3 million Euros from Azerbaijan for lobbying services. He transferred part of the funds to other deputies, the report says.

The 20-page report names a number of Azerbaijani MPs, who were involved in these dirty games, and which can also be brought to justice in Europe.

So during interrogations Volonte confirmed that he received the following amounts on his accounts in different countries and banks of Azerbaijan:

December 17, 2012 - 100,000 Euros

December 27 - 220,000 Euros

March 19, 2013 - 180,000 Euros

From 10 July to 31 December - 630,000 Euros

From January 23 to December 31, 2014 - 1,260,000 Euros.

The total amount of bribes was 2,390,000 Euros.

The money was used to bribe Italian and a number of deputies from other European countries who voted against the resolutions of the Council of Europe and reports condemning human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

In particular, it is the money that helped to vote against the report by Strasser on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Recall that the first report on Caviar Diplomacy was distributed three years ago. Then the Azerbaijani authorities categorically rejected these allegations and called the report s baseless.

http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=131        -02D-