Velasco International received more than $9 million (€ 7 million) between 2012 and 2013 from Metastar Invest in accounts opened in Hungary and Cyprus.
Velasco International is an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands with links to Cyprus. It was incorporated in November 2007 by the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca and was dissolved in May 2015.
Velasco belonged to one of Deputy Prime Minister Yaqub Eyyubov’s sons, Orkhan Eyyubov. Documents in the Mossack Fonseca database indicate that the records of this company are kept at an address in Baku: suite 20, Yusif Safarov Str. 1/A., AZ1025 Baku. This is where Yaqub Eyyubov currently lives.
Reporters for OCCRP found out that while handling Velasco International, Orkhan Eyyubov was using three passports with three different citizenships at the same time. Azerbaijan doesn’t recognize foreign citizenship unless specifically permitted by the president of the country himself, according to the country’s law on citizenship and its Constitution.
Two of the passports, one Russian and one Azerbaijani, were found in the Panama Papers database as Eyyubov used them to set up offshore companies with the help of the Mossack Fonseca lawyers. The third citizenship, British, is mentioned in the paperwork filed with the British registry of companies and was acquired in 2012.
Orkhan Eyyubov’s brother, Emin, said he knew nothing about a connection between Velasco, Mossack Fonseca and himself or his family. He added that he did not know that his family resided at the address in Baku.
