GUBAD IBADOGLU: ABOUT $ 200 BILLION TRANSFERRED FROM AZERBAIJAN TO OFFSHORE ZONES
19:19 14/03/2013 ” SOCIETY
“About $ 200 billion is transferred from Azerbaijan to offshore
zones on islands in Latin America, Oceania and Europe. Banks in
Muslim countries as well as real estate transactions abroad, gold
and stocks are actively used to implement this,” said PhD, Chairman
of the Economic Research Center of Azerbaijan, Gubad Ibadoglu, the
article published on the website “Biznesinfo.az” says.
Ibadoglu noted that every Azerbaijani family as a result of transfer
of money to offshore zones did not count tens of thousands of dollars
in his budget.
The article says that in the mid-90s at the time of the original
financial redistribution in Azerbaijanthe Bahamas, for example, were
perceived as a springboard for the investment inflows. In practice, it
looked like this: money was pumped to offshore zone from Azerbaijan,
then the structures formed there were registered in Azerbaijan as a
partner or investment companies. In the oil sector of the republic
26 such “partners” operate today.
Offshore companies with Azerbaijani asset have proven themselves in
other branches of economy. There are insurance, financial and trading
firms among them. Offshore schemes worked well in the segment of
air aviation, gold mining industry, in a road construction. Besides
that, recently a tendency for the Azerbaijani offshore companies has
been established there in the sphere of leasing. Increasingly holding
companies are willing to register the offshore more frequently, as well
as companies involved in franchising and licensing, the article says.
The article states that, at the international level, the many
Azerbaijani offshore companies are are not able to act due to
Strasbourg Convention of the Council of Europe (1999) of the Criminal
Law Convention on Corruption and the Warsaw Convention (2005) on
Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime
and on the Financing of Terrorism. In 2009, Azerbaijan adopted a law
“On combating against legalization of criminally obtained funds or
other property and the financing of terrorism”, which greatly limits
the offshore activities. Appropriate decisions of the cabinet of
Ministers are developed, as well as instructions and orders of the
Ministry of Taxes, the Prosecutor General and the Customs Committee.
Meanwhile, the citizens of Azerbaijan who own big business actively
continue to use offshore schemes today. Thus they conduct efficient
economic activities, which easily allows their business to prosper
“outside the boundaries” of state control, the article says.
“There are many firms with the Azerbaijani capital in offshore today.
They make the oil and gas sector, they exist since 1995 and are located
mostly in the Cayman Islands, in the United States. The functioning
of these companies is conditioned by the benefits of tax regimes,”
the head of the Azerbaijani Oil Research Center Ilham Shaban commented
on the situation.
Source: Panorama.am