Azeri elite ran $2.9b slush fund:

Europe

Azerbaijan’s ruling elite ran a secret 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) slush fund to pay off European politicians and launder money, according to an investigation by a group of European newspapers published Tuesday.

The fund operated for two years from 2012 to 2014 through bank accounts of four shell companies registered in Britain, according to the investigation by papers including The Guardian and France’s Le Monde and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Nicknamed the “Azerbaijan Laundromat”, the origin of the fund is unclear “but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev”, the report said.

Authorities in the energy-rich country dismissed claims that the funds were linked to the first family and said the reports were “biased, unfounded and provocative”.

“They are part of a campaign to smear Azerbaijan,” presidential advisor Ali Hasanov told AFP, pointing the finger at arch-foe Armenia and the “global Armenian lobby.”

The Guardian said some of the money went to politicians and journalists as part of a “caviar diplomacy” lobbying effort to deflect criticism at a time when the former Soviet state was being accused of arresting rights activists and journalists and of voterigging. (AFP)