The European Parliament condemned the bribery of politicians in the framework of "Landromat"

Baku / 28.11.17 / Turan: Today in Brussels, at a meeting of the Committee of the European Parliament, a special hearing was held on the topic: Money Laundering in Slovenia and Azerbaijan.

Public hearing on "Money Laundering: The case of NLB Financial Group Slovenia and Azerbaijan Laundromat. In particular, the discussions concerned the bribery of European politicians and leaders of various spheres by the Azerbaijani authorities.

A loud scandal, called "Landromant", drew the attention of European deputies who condemned the practice of bribing politicians from the side of official Baku.

"The purpose of bribery was the desire to enlist the support of Europeans and not to allow criticism of Baku for violation of human rights and corruption," the authors of this investigation told reporters from the Organization for Crime and Corruption Reporting Projects (OCCRP).

The European deputies expressed their indignation at the actions of Baku and their colleagues who cooperated with the authorities for money and closed their eyes to the brutality of official Baku towards their own citizens.

The representative of the OCCRP journalist group called the "dangerous phenomenon" the desire of Baku to "export" corruption to the Council of Europe and create its own lobby here. She noted that not all the recipients of money from the Azerbaijani authorities have been identified so far.

In turn, the representative of Transparency International expressed alarm that the bulk of the more than 6,000 money transfers from 4 state agencies of Azerbaijan went to the West through four front companies established in the UK.

It is necessary to strengthen control over the activities of banks, to achieve greater transparency and to oblige them to report on the origin of funds in the light of the fight against corruption.

European deputies expressed a common opinion on the need to strengthen the responsibility of European officials to resist such manifestations of bribery and lobbying for the interests of "authoritarian regimes." -02B-