Aliyev’s assets frozen by court order

The Criminal Court has issued a freezing order on the assets owned by Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev, in the first confirmed action that the embattled millionaire was being investigated over money laundering.

The freezing order was issued against Aliyev, 52, and his Austrian wife Elnara Shorazova, and a host of companies he is connected to.

The freezing order has been communicated to Banif Bank and Bank of Valletta, as well as the inland revenue and VAT departments, the public registry and the financial services authority, Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries and Iuris Fiduciaries.

The order prohibits Aliyev and his wife Elnara Shorazova, and the companies mentioned, from transferring or otherwise disposing of any movable or immovable property.

Aliyev, formerly the son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev and deputy head of the Kazakh secret service, is also being investigated by Austrian prosecutors on the murder of two bankers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2008. The Maltese money laundering investigations only add to similar investigations in Krefeld, Germany.

Austrian connections

According to the freezing order, Aliyev is also connected to two companies set up with an address at Pendergardens, in St Julian's - Bongu Media Malta and Malta Press Agency.

Malta Press Agency Ltd is owned by Liliya Rakhmatullina, who is a director on another company A.V. Maximus Holding AG in Vienna. This company already features in money laundering investigations in Germany, as having been used as a channel for illegal monies to flow to subsidiaries Armoreal GmbH and S.T.A.R.T. Managementconsulting GmbH.

Bongu Media Malta is then owned by Kathleen Narodetsky, while her husband and journalist Alexander Narodetsky owns a 1% shareholding - both are based in Leeds, UK. Narodestky was once a director of the United States Congress funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kiev (known as Radio Svoboda), in the Ukraine.

Trusts connected to Aliyev

Another company whose assets have been frozen are Olympic Yachting Limited - possibly used as the owner of his personal yacht - whose shareholder is Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries.

Other companies are AJ Trust, Sydney Trust, and Athina Trust of Malta; and Acquarius Trust Company Limited and Aurelius Holdings Limited of Gibraltar; and EDS Holdings Ltds and Crimson Limited.

Investigation

In 2013, complaints submitted to both the Viennese prosecutor and the Maltese police, seen for the first time by MaltaToday, revealed a network of companies connected to Aliyev. According to Austrian lawyers Lansky Ganzger Partner, the money was laundered from alleged criminal activity, but MaltaToday cannot substantiate this claim.

The lawyers mapped out a complex network of transaction flows: in the first step, money was fed via two offshore companies, AV Maximus SA and Argocom Ltd into another company, A.V. Maximus Holding AG. That money was then channelled into subsidiaries Armoreal GmbH and S.T.A.R.T. Managementconsulting GmbH.

In the second step, loans were granted between the subsidiaries, with large amounts going to the German company Metallwerke Bender Rheinland.

In the third step, the money flowed back to A.V. Maximus SA or, via A.V. Maximus Holding AG, to Maltese and Caribbean enterprises.

The Austrian A.V. Maximus Holding was owned by a Maltese company, A & P Power Ltd, which was itself owned by A + P Power Holdings Ltd, registered in the Caribbean island of Nevis.

A & P Power Ltd, whose official purpose was indicated as rendering aeronautics services, was used by Shorazova to transfer the sum of €2.4 million from Austria to Malta. In 2009 it had assets of just €300, incurring a loss of €2,100 in 2010.

Now seated at the address of Joseph Giglio's law firm, A & P Power has been renamed Zurich Asset Management Ltd.

Berlin lawyers Danckert Spiller Richter Bärlein, acting on behalf of the Kazakh ministry of justice, also filed its own report to the Maltese Attorney General.

In their dossier, DSRB claimed that Aliyev shifted to Malta over €100 million in alleged "criminal gains" during his time as deputy head of the Kazakh secret service.

Again, MaltaToday has been unable to substantiate these allegations, although they have not been rebutted by Maltese investigators so far.