By Iggy Ostanin, 16/06/2015

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev's clan owns a 10,500-square-foot
London mansion worth more than US$ 25 million, according to the new
investigation of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

According to the information, the red-brick house is on the rich
neighborhood of Hampstead Lane in North London. It was purchased in
1998 when Aliyev was a vice-president of Azerbaijan's State Owned
Oil Company (SOCAR). It is unknown how much the purchase price was,
or how much he was getting paid back then. Land Registry records
for the Hampstead Lane house, dubbed the "Mansion on the Heath" by
its architects, show that it is owned by Beckforth Services Limited,
a company in turn owned by the Aliyevs and registered in the Isle of
Man, an offshore tax haven.

Today Ilham Aliyev is the President of Azerbaijan, and the Mansion on
the Heath is just one of multiple pied-a-terres used by the Aliyevs,
who also maintain domiciles in Moscow and Baku. Today as president,
Aliyev's salary is about US$ 230,000 per year, raising in OCCRP an
interesting question: how can he possibly afford such a large house
in one of London's most expensive neighborhoods?

The investigative journalists revealed that the Aliyevs used the
address of SOCAR as their personal address.

According to the website of high-end architects SHH, the firm was
retained to enlarge and redecorate the property. The architects
claim that their client asked for "a sense of grandeur, especially
in the entrance area." The Aliyevs' neighborhood is one of London's
wealthiest. One of the owners of the Arsenal football club, Alisher
Usmanov, owns a house down the block, which he bought in 2008 for
US$76 million. Although the exact value of the Aliyevs' London
property is not clear, their next door neighbor's house was worth
more than US$ 26 million two years ago. The Hampstead mansion is
likely to be worth significantly more after the work performed by SHH,
whose clients include wealthy Saudis and fashion designer Tom Ford,
the journalists point.

The Aliyevs did not directly buy the Hampstead mansion in 1998, but
used Beckforth Services Limited to acquire it. Wealthy individuals
sometimes use such companies to buy property to ensure their names
do not appear on the property records. However, the documents for
Beckforth Services spell out that its true owners are the Aliyevs,
according to OCCRP report.

The OCCRP journalists say one of the first directors of the Aliyevs'
company back in 1997 was an accountant named Joel Steinhart. SMP
Partners, who set up and manages Beckforth Services Limited, also
offers services to "private clients wishing to protect family assets"
and "manages in excess of $6 billion of trust assets for clients."

However, Alham Aliyev is not meant to be "high net-worth" individual or
entrepreneur, as he earns a US $230,000 annual salary and is forbidden
from running businesses under Azerbaijani law.

However, in this London example alone, their ownership of a hugely
expensive property and use of a luxury architectural firm suggests
the Azerbaijani president's clan is spending far more than their
visible means of income would support.

Related:

Details of TeliaSonera offshore scandal revealed: Aliyev clan stole
US$ 600 million from Azerbaijanis

Journalists from US, Europe, Turkey and Caucasus launch The Khadija
Project to reveal Aliyev clan's scandalous offshore deals

OCCRP new investigation: Aliyev clan controls assets worth more than
US$ 3 billion in banking sector

Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova: Exposing TeliaSonera's
scandalous bribery is reason for my arrest

https://www.occrp.org/freekhadijaismayilova/stories/the-mansion-on-the-heath.php