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A grandson of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon purchased a lavish Dubai apartment when he was just 9 years old, leaked real estate records show.
The records are part of the Dubai Unlocked data leak revealing the identities of hundreds of thousands of people from around the world who own luxury properties in the Middle Eastern city.
The data leak does not reveal how much the Tajik president’s grandson, Erajjon Gulov, paid to purchase the 210-square-meter apartment, located in the the iconic Palm Jumeirah archipelago. But calculations based on the apartment’s size and current Dubai property prices put the value of the residence at more than $1.3 million today.
It is still owned by Erajjon Gulov, who is now 18, according to records from the Dubai Land Department, and is being used to earn $55,000 in rental income every year.
About the Dubai Unlocked Investigation
Dubai Unlocked is based on leaked data providing a detailed overview of hundreds of thousands of properties in Dubai and information about their ownership or usage, largely from 2020 and 2022.
It is unclear whether his parents’ income at the time could have covered the cost of the apartment. At the time of the purchase, his mother, Parvina Rahmonova, was not known to have formal employment. Her husband, Ashrafdjon Gulov, was the head of consular services at the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, according to a Tajik government website. He had formerly headed Tajikistan’s Tax Committee inspectorate for large taxpayers.
Public officials in Tajikistan are not required to disclose their salaries or tax returns. But according to a list of jobs published by the Foreign Ministry in 2022, the highest possible salary for a civil servant was just $200 a month.
“Ashraf Gulov’s salary as a diplomat wouldn’t allow him to buy a $1.3-million property in Dubai,” said Edward Lemon, a Central Asia expert and research assistant professor at Texas A&M University.
Ashraf Gulov (left) shaking hands with the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Still, in 2015 Rahmonova and Gulov were far from the average Tajiks. Ashrafdjon Gulov’s father, Sherali Gulov, was an established member of the country’s political elite, having reportedly served as Tajikistan’s minister of energy and industry from 2006 to 2013. And Rahmonova’s father, Emomali Rahmon, was more than 20 years into an entrenched presidency characterized by democracy watchdog groups as one of the most corrupt and nepotistic in Central Asia.
In a 2015 report, Freedom House wrote that Rahmon “continued to issue opportunities based on nepotism and clan membership,” and noted that “government posts, especially those related to taxation or trade, are particularly lucrative.”
Neither Erajjon Gulov nor his parents responded to requests for comment.
Under a 1985 United Arab Emirates law, children between the ages of 7 and 18 may own real estate, but only with the approval of a legal guardian.
It is unclear from the leaked data who may have served as Erajjon Gulov’s guardian in the Tanzanite Residence purchase, although the email address of Suhrob Mirzoaliev, a former head of Tajikistan’s diplomatic services, is listed as a contact in the property transaction information. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Colin Powers, a senior fellow and chief editor for the Noria MENA Program, an independent nonprofit research organization, says allowing property sales to minors is just one of many ways that Dubai uses loose regulatory oversight to keep capital flowing into its real estate market.
For wealthy families, Powers said, acquiring property in the name of a child can help provide a thin disguise to ill-gotten gains or limit tax liabilities back home by spreading assets.
“It’s just another device for allowing the transnational elite to hide and preserve their wealth within the property market,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s all that clever a device – it doesn’t take too many sleuths diving into it to find that someone is a child or a grandchild. But it does take a little bit of work.”
All In the Family
The Tajik president, who has nine children, has elevated numerous family members to key government and financial positions. One daughter, Ozoda, serves as his chief of staff; another, Zarina, is first vice-chair of the board of Orienbank, Tajikistan’s largest commercial bank.
His son Rustam Emomali serves as both mayor of the capital Dushanbe and chairman of the upper house of parliament, a position that leaves him officially poised to assume the acting presidency in the event that Rahmon, now 72, vacates his post.
Parvina Rahmonova and Ashrafdjon Gulov have maintained lower profiles than other members of the extended presidential clan. In a 2014 interview with the state-sponsored “Tajiks of Russia” diaspora newspaper, republished by Tajikistan’s privately owned Asia-Plus news site, Gulov shrugged off suggestions that his assignment as a diplomat in Moscow was the result of family connections, and downplayed Tajik consular affairs in the Russian capital as “one of the most difficult” foreign policy assignments.
“If I really got this position through nepotism, why wasn’t I given a ‘quieter’ and ‘fatter’ position?” he said.
Gulov began his post as Russia was tightening restrictions on travel documents for Tajik citizens living and working in the country. The mandate resulted in tens of thousands of Tajik migrants scrambling for expensive biometric passports, sometimes with the assistance of unofficial middlemen who promised expedited access in exchange for a fee. In the “Tajiks of Russia” interview published by Asia-Plus, Gulov acknowledged the presence of “intermediaries,” but said “no one” among his staff worked with them and that he would take action if they did.
After Moscow and a stint at the Foreign Ministry in Dushanbe, Gulov served as Tajikistan’s ambassador to Turkey from 2021 to 2024. By then, his wife had gone into business, launching Sifat Pharma, a pharmaceutical company with several pink-and-white themed drugstores in Dushanbe and a growing number of government contracts for COVID ventilators and other medical supplies. According to reporting by RFE/RL, Sifat Pharma secured millions of dollars in government tenders since its launch in 2017.
While serving as ambassador, Gulov hosted webinars on Tajik-Turkish medical partnerships and organized a delegation of Turkish entrepreneurs to Tajikistan, resulting in a deal between a Sifat subsidiary and Turkey’s Dundarlar equipment manufacturer.
Gulov has acquired a number of properties in Dushanbe. OCCRP and Azda TV have identified several properties registered in his name, including a space in the main office of the International Bank of Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, he has also continued his diplomatic career: In August 2024, he was appointed Tajikistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
