British court: in the wake of the "Panaman dossier"

Baku / 21.12.18 / Turan: The daughters of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were likely to be involved in actions that could potentially be related to money laundering, a British court confirmed, reported the Guardian newspaper. The suspicions of investigators were attracted by Leila and Arzu Aliyev"s attempt to buy luxury property in London worth 60 million pounds.

According to the Guardian, the talk is about two apartments in London's Knightsbridge, in close proximity to the queen's residence - Buckingham Palace. For their acquisition, it was planned to use an offshore company, which the British lawyer Khalid Sharif bought from the Panamanian company Mossack Fonseca.

The deal was canceled in 2016, when following the publication of an investigation into Mossack Fonseca - the so-called "Panamanian dossier" - members of the Aliyev family were suspected of a large scale money laundering on.

It is reported that the court ordered Sharif to pay a fine of 45,000 pounds for not checking the origin of the Aliyevs funds. According to British law, such checks are mandatory if the persons purchasing property in the country are otherwise connected with politics. According to the investigation, Sharif refused to do this, obliging his assistant to declare that the daughters of the President of Azerbaijan are not related to politics.

After publishing an investigation into Mossack Fonseca in 2016, the Aliyev family was suspected of using the network of offshore companies to acquire real estate in London, Moscow, Dubai and Prague, reports Guardian with reference to the RadioSvoboda.-0-