The ‘Pandora Papers’ have implicated figures in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia in a global network of tax-havens. Two prominent figures from the South Caucasus include the founder of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The Pandora Papers are a massive leak of nearly 12 million files, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that reveals a globe-spanning network of offshore tax havens that has been used by the rich and powerful to hide their wealth.
The biggest revelations for the region concern the wealth of Ilham Aliyev whose relatives have been revealed as the owners of nearly $700 million of real-estate in London.
According to an investigation into the files by OCCRP, 84 ‘previously unknown offshore companies’ registered in the British Virgin Islands that have been or are still owned by Aliyev, his relatives, or close associates have been discovered.
Through the company, Aliyev and close relatives including his children Arzu, Leyla, and Heydar own or have owned ritzy locations in the UK capital, including apartments, commercial developments, and even a historic pub just steps away from the British Museum.
While ‘in most cases’ the leak ‘contained no information about how money entered the offshore empire of the Aliyevs and their associates’ OCCRP did unearth several connections between the London properties and a shell company ‘at the heart’ of the so-called Russian Laundromat — a $20 billion money laundering operation.
Bidzina’s companies in the islands
According to latest revelations, Georgian tycoon, former Prime Minister, and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili opened 12 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands — a noted tax haven — between 1998-2016.
In 2012, local regulators in the British Virgin Islands inquired about Finseck, an entity belonging to Ivanishvili created on his behalf by the the Panama-based Alcogal firm, which reportedly described Finseck to regulators as ‘linked to a trust Ivanishvili established for the benefit of his children’.
Ivanishvili’s companies according to Pandora Papers. Screenshot of an interactive graph by ICIJ
ICIJ describe Alcogal as a ‘go-to offshore provider for top politicians and elites in Latin America and beyond’ having ties with ‘nearly half of all politicians’ implicated by Pandora Papers, including Czech PM Andrej Babiš, Vladimir Putin’s Associate Svetlana Krivonogikh and a Russian oil magnate also close to Putin — Gennady Timchenko.
Yet another Ivanishvili-owned company, Brighton Corporate Ltd. registered offshore was set up to finance ‘via debt equity’ unidentified projects under Georgia’s Co-Investment Fund (GCF).
Pledging $1 billion of his own money, Ivanishvili established GCF in 2013 and vowed to lure foreign investments in Georgia. Since it was founded, the GCF has been marred by a lack of transparency and unclear connections with official structures within the Georgian Government.
Mining connections
According to an investigation by Armenia-based media outlet Hetq, a member of the ICIJ, the ‘managing companies’ of the Azatek gold mine, and a prospective mine in the Bazum iron deposit were registered in offshore tax havens.
According to the leaks, in 2014, the Azatek gold mine, located in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor province was to be managed by Coeur Gold Armenia, a company registered in the Seychelles. Meanwhile, a prospective mine that was planned to exploit the Bazum deposit was to be managed by ‘Bazum Steel’, based in Belize and founded in 2013.
The Bazum deposit was reportedly not exploited due to a drop in the international price of iron.
VaykGold and Surart, which were to be the local subsidiaries running the Azatek and Bazum mines, respectively, were, as of 2012, owned by Vardan Ayvazyan who had served as the Minister of Environmental protection between 2001 and 2007, and was an MP from the then-ruling Republican Party between 2007 and 2018.
In 2012, Ayvazyan was ordered by a US Federal Court to pay $37.5 million in damages to a U.S. mining company for alleged corruption.
When he’s not busy editing an article or reporting a story, Peter dabbles in documentary film production. His interests include labour, social movements, and corruption.
Armenia has extended the protection status for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, without which they would not be able to leave the country.
On Thursday, the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the status of protection granted to Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians was extended until 31 December 2025, with the possibility of further extension.
This status was given to over 100,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who did not apply for Armenian citizenship following the mass displacement in 2023.
Armenia’s opposition has held a hearing in defence of the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence in Armenia’s constitution, with opposition figures insulting supporters and members of the ruling party.
The opposition Armenia Alliance faction held the hearing on Thursday to discuss the draft statement regarding the inviolable relevance of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.
The hearing took place against the backdrop of continued statements from Azerbaijan that the inclusion of the d
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan has slammed the Deputy Chair of the Armenian Parliament’s Defence Committee, Armen Khachatryan, for attempting to downplay the responsibility of the authorities in the non-combat deaths of soldiers.
‘In our civilian life, we have many suicides, we have many accidents. I don’t know why you don’t talk about it, the reasons for those suicides’, Khachatryan said on Tuesday, in response to a question regarding the recent death of a soldier outside of comba
