Real estate records recently obtained from Dubai by The Washington Post reveal that during a two-week period early last year, an 11-year-old boy from Azerbaijan went on a shopping spree, buying nine waterfront mansions with a total price tag of $44 million.
Because of their eye-popping price tag, the transactions also raise questions about corruption in Azerbaijan -- thanks to other details about the identity of the 11-year-old buyer.
His name is Heydar Aliyev. That also happens to be the name of the son of Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev. Furthermore, Dubai records show the purchaser's date of birth to be the same as that of the president's son.
President Aliyev earns a salary equivalent to $228,000 a year in Azerbaijan. That's way too little for him to be able to afford even the least expensive house in Palm Jumeirah, the luxury development where the mansions are located. More typical of Palm Jumeirah buyers are sports superstars and multimillionaires with money to burn.
Thus, this buying binge raises serious questions about exactly where the huge sums of money generated by Azerbaijan's oil and gas fields are going. Outside of the capital, Baku, extreme poverty is the rule for most Azeris, and the country ranks among the most corrupt in the world, ranking 143rd out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2009 survey of global corruption.
Other records on file with the Dubai Land Department suggest that purchases have also been made in the names of Heydar's sisters, Leyla and Arzu. Exact birthdates could not be established for the two girls, but their ages match or are close to those of the individuals identified on the Dubai records. All the purchases by the three individuals were paid for in cash by a buyer representing Azerbaijan's ruling family, according to Dubai real estate dealers with knowledge of the transactions who spoke to the Post.
The Azeri president's spokesman, Azer Gasimov, refused to comment on the transactions. When contacted by the Post via telephone, he said, "I have no comment on anything. I am stopping this talk. Goodbye," and he did not answer followup requests sent via text message, fax and e-mail.
The United States has cultivated Azerbaijan as a strategic ally in the Caucasus region both because of its proximity to Afghanistan and as a means to counter Russian control of oil and gas pipelines from the region to the West. As a result, the U.S. has soft-pedaled its concerns over corruption and a worsening record on democracy and human rights in the country.
Written by Sandy Smith
For HULIQ.com
Source: The Washington Post
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Comments
#1 Weird,
I am amazed that a teenage boy from a poor country has purchased a property in such a costly place like Dubai and it surely represents the CORRUPTION by the government in countries like Azerbaijan. Poor masses of those countries are being ruled by corrupt leader and politicians. I have come to know from http://www.bayut.com/ that property in Dubai is really expensive and only a few people from third world countries are able to buy them.