The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found evidence that Turkish businessman Emin Uchar made his fortune working for the family of Vasif Talibov, who ruled Nakhijevan for 27 years, while his corrupt money was invested in the Georgian hospitality industry.
"Across the street from the opera house in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, well-heeled patrons enjoy local and international cuisine at the upscale Dinehall restaurant, whose motto is “Good food is a human right.” Nearby, a five-star hotel is under construction in partnership with the French hospitality giant Accor.
The hotel and eatery are part of a $270-million business empire in the small Caucasian country overseen –– at least on paper –– by a Turkish national named Emin Uchar. But OCCRP has discovered evidence that Uchar has likely acted for years as a frontman for the family of Vasif Talibov, who was the autocratic ruler of a secluded region of Azerbaijan for 27 years until he abruptly resigned on December 21," the investiation says.
Emin Uchar's lawyer denied that his company's assets are owned by the Talibov family, claiming that the financial sources of the business are loans. Accor said it is reviewing its relationship with the Turkish businessman due to recent reports of ties to Talibov.
In February 2022, OCCRP uncovered Uchar's ties to the Talibov family, whose regime silenced independent media, forced dissidents into mental hospitals, and controlled the beating and torture of prisoners. Reporters also discovered that Talibov amassed a fortune while in power even though his official annual salary was only $26,000. OCCRP notes that the corporate network, which includes several companies known as Gamigaya in Azerbaijan and the Maqro Group in Georgia, has also won dozens of government contracts in Azerbaijan since the first firms were incorporated in the early 2000s.
However, Talibov's fortunes have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, with the patriarch resigning as head of Nakhijevan amid political repression from Azerbaijan's central government.
A week after Talibov's resignation, Gamigaya was renamed renamed "Arkoz," the name of another company linked to Uchar. Human rights organizations have long claimed that the Talibovs control Gamigaya, but information about the company's ownership in Azerbaijan is not disclosed, so it is impossible to prove this claim.
But a former Gamigaya employee told OCCRP that he had observed that when he worked in security for the company, Uchar was taking orders from the Talibovs. “They simply entrusted the Gamigaya Holding to him. But everything was done according to the instructions of Vasif Talibov,” Nadir Mammadov said in a video call from Germany, where he settled after fleeing Nakhchivan because he was beaten by police.
The Law on Commercial Secrets in Azerbaijan has kept information about shareholders closed to journalists and citizens since 2012. It is impossible to find out the names of the companies' shareholders. But documents found by investigative journalists prove Uchar's connection to Talibov.
In January 2012 the former head of Nakhijevan visited Batumi, a month later his eldest son Rza Talibov bought real estate there for 1, 5 million dollars. Journalists found a document signed by Rza Talibov, where he instructed Emin Ucharu to buy real estate for him in Batumi.
In the summer of that year, Rza received another certificate for two months to buy another property adjacent to the purchased historic building. Two years later, a five-star Divan Suites Batumi hotel opens in that historic building in Batumi, which Rza Talibov put up for sale for $18 million late last year when the central government of Azerbaijan began a staff slaughter in Nakhijevan.
Meanwhile, the Maqro company in Tbilisi owns the Green Budapest apartment complex, and a larger facility called Green Diamond is being built for $120 million. A Swissotel hotel is being built with the French Accor. They have two other hotels in the old center of Tbilisi: Mercure, which opened in 2015, and Ibis, which has been hosting guests since 2017. Sandro Kevkhishvili, an expert with Transparency International, said that investing money from possible corruption in Azerbaijan in Georgia contains risks in terms of corruption in Georgia. “A person who accumulates wealth through corruption will try to use the same methods in the country where he invested this money –– especially if the country does not have strong anti-corruption mechanisms and a decision-making system to reduce these risks,” he said in an interview in Tbilisi.
