Three More Accused Testified at Trial on Misappropriation of IBA Funds

Baku / 15.02.19 / Turan: In the afternoon, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes continued the trial of the former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) Jahangir Hajiyev, the businessman Dunyamin Khalilov and another 19 accused in the case of misappropriation of funds at this financial institution.

After a break in the trial, testimony was given by the accused Tabriz Abdulhamidov, who is charged with misappropriation of funds in the amount of more than 17 million manat. He noted that he first worked in Khalilov's company as a courier, and then he was appointed as a construction specialist to General Consulting Company: "Dunyamin Khalilov promised to appoint me as director of Parvana LLC and I agreed. It was in 2007. I was always at the facility, and they brought me documents for signing there. My salary was 450-500 manat." Abdulhamidov said he controlled the construction of Olympic complexes in Zagatala, Sheki, Gusar, and Gazakh.

Then another defendant in the case, the head of Khazar Management, Adil Mikailov, was questioned. He said he received a proposal from Khalilov to build the Sheki hydroelectric station: "I received a salary of 700 and then 1,000 manat at the beginning. When I became the director, I received 2,500 manat. In 2009, under the guarantee of IBA, we signed a contract with a German company and I signed the documents. In general, we did what we were told. Khalilov supervised all the companies. We took money from the bank in parts and handed them over to the cashier Mikail Muradov."

Mikailov is accused of misappropriation of 1 million 14 thousand manat.

Further, the accused Erkhan Javad was questioned. According to him, he was the head of the company Azerbaijan Consulting Group. Javad stated that Cargill Company signed a contract with Buta Kitchen to purchase food worth 163 million manat. IBA was the guarantor of this transaction. "Cargill sold us food products, then bought them again and sold them to another company. Corn was supposed to be supplied to Azerbaijan. Then they sold it. After deducting the interest, Cargill transferred 130 million manat to the foreign accounts of Buta Kitchen. 30 million AZN was sent to Azerbaijan, and the remaining 100 million AZN was transferred by the shareholder Nasib Piriyev to another company as a debt. I don"t know anything about the fate of this money," the accused said.

Judge Garibov reported that Javad and Nasib Piriyev are accused of misappropriating more than 249 million manat. Piriyev is wanted and his case is investigated in a separate proceeding.

The trial will continue on February 18.

* Jahangir Hajiyev was arrested on December 5, 2015, and the Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Hajiyev and seven others were found guilty of fraud with causing major damage, misappropriation, embezzlement, abuse of office, and bribery.

At the end of December 2018, the Prosecutor General"s Office reported that Hajiyev was being charged in a new case under articles on appropriation of a large amount of money, legalization of proceeds from crime, tax evasion, etc.

He is charged with the conclusion of transactions on the purchase / sale of promissory notes with no real value for a total amount of 3.4 billion dollars and 987 million euros.

In addition, on the instructions of Hajiyev, according to the investigation, numerous loan agreements were concluded in order to legalize cash in AZN and foreign currency in the total amount of 900 million AZN. These funds were transferred from bank accounts to other accounts for the purpose of assignment.

The investigation accuses Hajiyev of misappropriation of 4.7 billion manat together with the former MP Dunyamin Khalilov and another 20 people.

In addition, according to the investigation, Hajiyev, together with Khalilov, being the actual heads of Aztorq LLC from 2011 to 2014, did not pay taxes totaling 1,752,000 manat to the state budget.

Hajiyev and Khalilov rejected all the charges. -21С-