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- A new corporate filing reveals that the offshore company Vremax Properties Limited is owned by the family of Erdal Aksoy. A previous OCCRP investigation found that Vremax bought the luxury London residence of Juma Ahmadzada, the son of Azerbaijani official Ahmad Ahmadzada.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Ahmad Ahmadzada, Mehmet Cengiz, and Erdal Aksoy were all involved in a major dam-building project in Azerbaijan. Cengiz\u2019s company paid $3 million to Vremax Properties after it won a tender to build the dam.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A book and film on Erdal Aksoy’s life reveal his links to Azerbaijan’s political elite, including the President and the official who oversaw the dam’s construction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
To a melodic piano soundtrack, the subject of a biopic titled \u201cLife Is All About Solving Problems\u201d strolls the shore of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan\u2019s capital, Baku. Neatly dressed in a suit and tie, he takes a seat in front of the city\u2019s Government House and tells the filmmakers how he helped Azerbaijan \u201copen up to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhenever Azerbaijan had a problematic situation to be solved\u2026 people would say, \u2018Let\u2019s refer this to Mr. Erdal. He can handle it,\u2019\u201d <\/p>\nhe says.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMr. Erdal\u201d is prominent Turkish businessman Erdal Aksoy. In a reverential 2022 documentary about his life and career<\/a>, featured on the YouTube channel of his family business Aksoy Holding, he promotes himself as an influential power broker who helps make deals between Turkey and Azerbaijan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Erdal Aksoy seats in front of the city\u2019s Government House. A screenshot of \u201cLife Is All About Solving Problems.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n But a recent corporate filing to the U.K.\u2019s offshore ownership registry has shed new light on a series of transactions that don\u2019t feature in any film \u2014 but fill in the missing piece of a puzzle left over from a previous OCCRP investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The filing, required under new U.K. transparency legislation, shows for the first time that a member of the Aksoy family owns a shell company called Vremax Properties Limited, which was at the heart of a 2020 OCCRP story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was found in 2020? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Reporters on the original investigation found Vremax had bought a luxury London apartment<\/a> in 2008 in which young businessman Juma Ahmadzada, the son of the head of an Azerbaijani state company, lived. He was immediately given permission to continue living there rent free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vremax was a shell company without a clear line of business, but months before buying the apartment, it had received millions in \u201cconsultancy\u201d fees from a U.K. company owned by Turkish tycoon Mehmet Cengiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this time, Cengiz\u2019s construction firm, Cengiz In\u015faat, was contracted to build Azerbaijan\u2019s largest dam by the state-owned company run by Juma\u2019s father, Ahmad Ahmadzada. Vremax went on to buy two neighboring apartments and allowed Juma to remodel them, spending a total of more than $5 million on luxury London real estate for the son of the Azeri official to live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Credit:<\/strong> Edin Pa\u0161ovi\u0107\/OCCRP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n While the transactions we uncovered raised questions about the links between Cengiz and the Ahmadzadas, reporters on the original story were unable to pin down the owner of Vremax since it was registered in the British Virgin Islands, a notoriously secretive jurisdiction. But the revelatory U.K. filing<\/a>, made in January 2023, showed Batu Aksoy, Erdal\u2019s son and the current CEO of Aksoy Holding, as the offshore company\u2019s only \u201cbeneficial owner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The filing was required under the U.K.\u2019s Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act. The legislation obliges all overseas entities that own properties in the U.K. to declare company ownership. The result has been a flood of new insights for journalists into the ownership of companies based in secretive jurisdictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more<\/a> about how OCCRP\u2019s data team made the U.K. property data more easily searchable by journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When OCCRP approached <\/a>Cengiz Holding about the new information, the company confirmed that Vremax was owned by the Aksoys. It said the consultancy fee it paid to Vremax was for services related to market research and new business opportunities, including in Azerbaijan. Its response did not mention the London apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The luxury apartment in London owned by Vremax where Juma Ahmadzada lives. Credit:<\/strong> OCCRP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n OCCRP also approached Aksoy Holding and the family\u2019s other firm Turcas, where Batu Aksoy is CEO. The chief legal officer for Turcas responded, saying Vremax had bought the London properties after deciding to invest in the U.K. and that the offshore company\u2019s owner, who it did not name, had \u201cdecades of acquaintance\u201d with Juma Ahmadzada. Turcas added that Juma \u201ctemporarily resides in the units as a guest in lieu of covering associated expenses\u201d and does not own them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juma Ahmadzada did not respond to a request for comment, but in 2020, the press office of the state company where his father worked \u2014 the Amelioration and Water Resources Open Joint Stock Company of Azerbaijan \u2014 said the family didn\u2019t have any ties to Vremax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe would like to inform you that the theoretical suggestions mentioned in your letter are based on wrong and misleading assumptions,\u201d they wrote. \u201cSeparately, mentioned infrastructure project was realized in accordance with the jurisdiction of the Republic of Azerbaijan and in line with the international norms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdal Aksoy and the Shamkirchay Dam<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The corporate filing prompted reporters to look for other connections between the Aksoy family, the Shamkirchay dam, Cengiz, and the Ahmadzadas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although there has never been any official announcement that Aksoy Holding was a part of the Shamkirchay project, other evidence in publicly available documents and publicity material around the dam suggests that \u201cMr. Erdal\u201d was involved in some way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One trove of information about the dam is an official book published in Azerbaijan in 2014, titled \u201cThe Ideas of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev to Build the Shamkirchay Water Reservoir Are Being Successfully Implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ideas of Great Leader\u201d mostly focuses on how Mehmet Cengiz\u2019s construction firm built the dam, but Erdal Aksoy appears in several photos in the book, including sitting alongside Ahmad Ahmadzada in 2008 at the signing of the dam contract. Aksoy can also be seen in a photograph taken at the dam\u2019s opening ceremony and later posted to the official website of President Ilham Aliyev. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Erdal Aksoy (right) and Ahmad Ahmadzada (left) signing the agreement for the dam project in 2008. Credit: Government of Azerbaijan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Aksoy Holding\u2019s website also suggests the family business was connected to the dam project: Although it only makes a general reference to the company\u2019s involvement in \u201cdam projects\u201d in Azerbaijan, it uses a picture of Shamkirchay to illustrate this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdal Aksoy\u2019s authorized biography, published in 2022 and also titled \u201cLife Is All About Solving Problems,\u201d states that a consortium he established \u201cmade its mark on the Shamkirchay dam, one of the largest dams in the world, upon the request of Aliyev.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Turcas and Cengiz Holding told OCCRP that Cengiz was the only firm contracted to build the Shamkirchay dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Turcas statement referred to unspecified collaborations with Cengiz In\u015faat. \u201cAksoy Holding has supported this firm to execute successful projects in Azerbaijan through various agreements. Memories mentioned in the book about the Chairman of the Board of our company are a mere reflection of this collaboration,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Ahmad Ahmadzada is featured in both the film and the book versions of \u201cLife Is All About Solving Problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book describes Ahmadzada, who is now an assistant to Azerbaijan\u2019s prime minister, as one of Aksoy\u2019s \u201cAzerbaijani friends.\u201d In the biopic he makes an appearance to praise Aksoy for wanting to help Azerbaijan \u201cfrom the very bottom of his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aksoy is also complimented in the film by another former top official in Azerbaijan: former Central Bank Chief Elman Rustamov, whose daughter Gyunel is married to Juma Ahmadzada and lives together with him in the luxury London flat purchased by Vremax. (Both Gyunel and Juma still give the expansive London home as a correspondence address, according to public records listed by the U.K.\u2019s Companies House and the Czech Commercial Register.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have always seen Mr. Erdal by our side as a true friend no matter what,\u201d says Rustamov, referring to Azerbaijanis. Rustamov, who is now an adviser to the Prime Minister, is also described in the book as a friend of Erdal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Aksoy Family Empire<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Founded by Erdal Aksoy in 1978, Aksoy Holding operates across the sectors of retail, power, hospitality, real estate and trade. Its ownership is now split between Erdal Aksoy, his son Batu, and his daughter Banu.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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