Jahangir Hajiyev

Jahangir Hajiyev, along with 7 other persons, was accused of embezzling public funds amounting to 211.59 million AZN (125 million euros)[5] under articles #178.3.2 and 179.1 of the Azerbaijan's Criminal Code. On December 5, 2015, an Azerbaijani court detained Jahangir Hajiyev for crimes of fraud and misappropriation of public funds.[6] He faced charges under Articles 179.3.1 and 179.3.2 (misappropriation of a large amount of money by an organised group), 308.2 (abuse of official powers resulting in serious consequences), 309.2 (exceeding officials powers resulting in serious consequences), 313 (service forgery), and 228.1 and 228.4 (illegal acquisition, transfer, selling, storage, transportation or carrying of a weapon, its accessories, ammunition or explosives) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. On October 14, 2016, a Baku court sentenced former chairman of the board of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) Jahangir Hajiyev to 15 years imprisonment for grave crimes.[7] Additionally, the Court decided that Mr Hajiyev had to pay 63 million AZN (to Azerbaijan International Bank and 7 million AZN to Agro-credit CJSC.[8] According to the findings of the Court, as a result of Jahangir Hajiyev’s criminal activity of money laundering more than 9 billion dollars were laundered from the financial turnover of Azerbaijan. This is considered to be one of the factors that caused a drop in macroeconomic indicators of the country, since the laundered amount makes up approximately 25% of Azerbaijan's average GDP for 2016/2017.[9] Reportedly, after being allocated by the bank, money was almost completely laundered and transferred abroad to the personal accounts of Hajiyev, his relatives and counterparts. According to the facts of the case, the most frequently used scheme was issuing of non-refundable loans for fictional expenses or fictional income projects. For the laundering scheme shell companies were established both in Azerbaijan and abroad (mainly in offshore jurisdictions). And as security for loans fictional pledges (bills of exchange, guarantees) were presented.[10] Hajiyev and his lawyers declined all the crime charges and indicated that all bank loans were given under the permission of Central Bank and Ministry of Finance. Furthermore, due to the Azerbaijani's government abysmal human rights record and considerations of Hajiyev's specific trial, the UK Magistrates' Court ruled that the government's extradition request for Zamira Hajiyeva, Jahangir Hajiyev's wife, would be denied. The judge cited a serious possibility of her receiving a "flagrant denial of justice" in the Azerbaijani court system, thereby suggesting that Jahangir Hajiyev himself was unlikely to have received anything resembling a fair trial.[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahangir_Hajiyev