Экономика

Journalists continue to publish an investigation into five Azerbaijani citizens – Tahir Garayev, Akhmed Kerimov, Anar Madatli, Talat Safarov, and Etibar Eyyub – who have been under UK sanctions since May.

Their company, Coral Energy Group (formerly 2Rivers Group), facilitates sanctions-evasion efforts by transporting Russian oil. Their main partner is Rosneft (under US sanctions), and Eibar Eyyub is on friendly terms with Igor Sechin.

Interestingly, Garayev and his company were caught selling Russian fuel to Ukraine. Although their trade in Rosneft products had long been known, British journalists began investigating their operations after an incident in Mykolaiv in the spring of 2022. In April, searches were conducted at the office of the oil terminal in the Mykolaiv seaport in connection with the Oil Transshipment LLC case, and nearly 15,000 tons of diesel fuel and 1,700 tons of jet fuel were seized.

In court, it was revealed that the fuel belonged to Apeiron Energy and Coral Energy, whose founders, through a complex chain of connections, included Vetus Investment Limited, Matterhorn Group FZE, and Novus Middle East DMCC, ultimately leading to Azerbaijani citizen Tahir Garayev and his friend Etibar Eyyub. The companies’ lawyers argued that the diesel and jet fuel were imported from Italy and Greece, not Russia, but the prosecutor and judge, for some reason, did not believe them.

It should be noted that until the spring of 2021, Rosneft’s diesel fuel was transported through Ukraine to Eastern Europe via a pipeline by the Swiss company Proton Energy Group S.A. (now Epsilon Holding SA), which owned the Gluscо gas station chain linked to Viktor Medvedchuk. However, in March 2021, these gas stations were searched as part of a criminal investigation into the import of illegal petroleum products and tax evasion via sea tankers, and the fuel was seized. At the same time, Ukraine imposed sanctions against Medvedchuk.

Following this, Proton Energy decided to leave the Ukrainian market, and Rosneft officially transferred its contracts to Tahir Garayev’s Coral Energy. As a result, as the lawyer stated in court, Coral Group companies gained a dominant position in the Ukrainian fuel market. Garayev’s companies delivered both shipments—diesel and jet fuel—to Mykolaiv by sea in late December 2021, but failed to declare them at customs. The situation was exposed when shelling began, and shrapnel fell into the filled tanks.

What happened next is already known. British investigators uncovered Garayev & Co.’s network of companies. Six months later, the Azerbaijani traders’ legal entities were sanctioned, and soon afterward, the traders themselves. In late 2023, Garayev attempted to reform the business, dividing his 100% stake in Coral Energy among the group’s top managers and allocating shares to Talat Safarov, Akhmed Kerimov, and Anar Madatli. Coral Energy’s entities were then renamed 2Rivers DMCC and 2Rivers PTE, but this did not save the situation. This fall, 2Rivers officially announced the cessation of trading activities.

But this is clearly not the end: there are reports that Garayev has now transferred all operations to a new Dubai-based company, Safira Global Trading. Furthermore, Garayev is indeed expanding his market presence – for example, about a year ago, his Novus Middle East DMCC acquired an oil storage terminal on Karimun Island in Indonesia from Oiltanking GmbH. The terminal has been approved by Platts for participation in the Singapore Market on Close (MOC), a key mechanism for setting global oil product prices. This terminal is now called PT Oil Terminal Karimun.

Earlier, in the summer of 2022, Nord Axis Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company owned by Garayev’s group, acquired a 10% stake in Vostok Oil, Rosneft’s flagship project, from Singaporean oil trader Trafigura. Clearly, this is far from the only major investment made by Azerbaijani businessmen—part of their network remains hidden, and now, through Safira, they will begin to rebuild their offshore schemes.

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Incidentally, Garayev’s entities and the company trade not only Russian oil but also Russian coal. But not always successfully. For example, a Russian coal supplier refused to return a billion rubles, and a court prohibited them from terminating the unnecessary contract.

Back in 2021, Coral Energy signed a five-year contract with OKTO Ugol LLC (equally owned by Fyodor Bazolin, Andrey Poplavsky, Ivan Balakin, Dmitry Kozlyakov, and Alexey Luginin) for coal supplies of approximately 600,000 metric tons per year. The Azerbaijanis transferred over $13,780,000 as a security deposit. OKTO Ugol used this money to purchase the Stepnoy Mine coal company from the Gutserievs, and then transferred the seller’s and supplier’s responsibilities under the contract to the mine.

But then war and sanctions erupted, and Europe completely abandoned Russian coal, so over three years the buyer submitted bids for less than 300,000 tons. Coral Energy also transferred the contract to an affiliated company, BX Energy Limited, which sued OKTO Ugol and Stepnoy for a refund and termination of the contract. The problem is that OKTO has no money—the coal isn’t selling, and the debt is growing. To pay off the multi-billion-dollar debt to Uralsib, the company can sell the Stepnoy open pit mine, and then the Azerbaijani traders will never see their millions.