Former senior officials of the Ministry of Communications accused of embezzling 95 million manat

As a result of corrupt abuse of former senior officials of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies  95 million manat of public funds were misappropriated.

According to the press service of the Prosecutor General, the investigation conducted by the General Directorate for Combating Corruption has  established that the General Director of "Baku Telephone Communications" Baitullah Huseynov in 2009-2015, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the directors of the companies founded by his wife Bayram Veliyev and Emin Mammadov, gave them a project for the implementation of works on the new telephone lines and installation of new equipment. Under the agreement, 35-45 per cent of  funds   on the accounts of these companies were to be returned in cash to Huseynov.

 The latter  abusing official authority conducted sham tenders, designed forged documents that laying fiber optic lines to the Internet allegedly  were carried out under the  control of his  companies. In fact these works were carried out by local telephone networks. As a result of these machinations Huseynov misappropriated 21.37 million from 71.26 million manat, listed on the account  of the firms controlled by him.

Huseynov is a relative of the former head of the Ministry of National Security Eldar Mahmudov.

In turn, the head of the Ministry Vidadi Zeynalov, according to the investigation, registering companies close to him, increased their value by 4-5 times, thus  appropriated  73 million 590,000 manat.

According to the report of the  Prosecutor General,  the head of the  "Baku Telephone Network" Baitullah Huseynov, chief accountant Anar Mustafayev, directors of firms controlled by  Huseynov - Emin Mamedov  and Bayram Veliyev, and as well as the chief accountant of "Aztelekom" Oktay Rustamov  are charged under Articles 179.3.2 (embezzlement on a large scale), 308.2 (abuse of power) and 313 (forgery) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

Head of the  Department of the Ministry Vidadi Zeynalov, General Director of  the OJSC "AzİnTelekom" Jalil Jafarov, the General Director of  the OJSC "Azerpocht" Gambar Beybalaevu, Director LLC "Optik Rabite, Tikinti ve Quraşdırma" Namazaly Mammadov  are  charges under  the Articles 179.3.2 and 308.2, and chief accountant of the Company Sahrabu Gumbetov - under  the articles 179.3.2, 308.2 and 313. For all of these persons a preventive measure   is arrest.

Currently, experts of the Ministries of Taxation and Finance  are  inspecting  these public and private enterprises and companies,  reads the report  of the  Attorney General.

Official information about arrests in the Ministry of Communications was extended  the next day after the dismissal of Ali Abbasov as the head of this department. -06D--