Azerbaijan leader's daughters tried to buy £60m London home with offshore funds

Purchase would have carried ‘significant risk of money laundering’, tribunal hears

Luke Harding
Fri 21 Dec 2018 07.00 GMT

The daughters of Azerbaijan’s president agreed to buy a £60m London property using a secret offshore company, in a case potentially carrying “a significant risk of money laundering”, a tribunal has heard.

Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva sought to purchase two luxury Knightsbridge flats for £59.5m, including £3m to convert them into a single home. The deal in 2015 was intended to be the latest addition to a multi-million pound property portfolio in Britain acquired by president Ilham Aliyev’s family.

Leyla Aliyeva initiated the purchase at the same time as her divorce from Emin Agalarov, an Azerbaijani businessman and pop star. Aglarov’s father Aras, a Moscow-based property developer, hosted Donald Trump on his 2013 visit to Russia for the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

Details emerged in a disciplinary tribunal into the solicitor who carried out the transaction, Khalid Sharif. Sharif – a senior partner with the London firm Child & Child – admitted failing to carry out money-laundering checks and breaching his professional code.

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