Page 17 - FSUOGM Week 42 2021

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Turkmen petrochem plants channels exports

via UK firms tied to president’s nephews

TURKMENISTAN STATE petrochemical plants in Turkmenistan OCCRP and other media outlets around the
are channelling exports via obscure UK firms world.”
A key role in the with ties to Turkmen President Gurbanguly Ber- The leaked records paint an ambiguous pic-
Scotissh firm has been dimuhamedov’s nephews, the Organised Crime ture of the fertiliser and petroleum companies’
played by one of the and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) ultimate beneficiaries, according to OCCRP,
autocratic president's reported on October 14 following an examina- which added: “Their shareholders were off-
nephews, Hajymyrat tion of offshore documents. shore ‘nominees’ whose function is to obscure
Rejepov. The media outlet’s investigation—conducted the identity of the real owners. When U.K. law
jointly with Turkmen.News and Gundogar. changed to require the disclosure of a compa-
org—showed that an obscure Scottish company, ny’s ‘persons of significant control,’ several lit-
Caran Holdings, is at the centre of mineral fer- tle-known Turkmens were declared at various
tiliser sales produced at a large state-owned urea points. When OCCRP reached out to them,
(carbamide) and ammonia plant in Garabogaz, they were either unreachable or declined to
Turkmenistan, operated since its launch three comment.”
years ago by state chemical concern Turkmen- OCCRP concluded that it was unclear how
himiya and built with the help of a $1.16bn much money Hajymyrat and Shamyrat Rejepov
loan from the Japanese Bank for International have made in commodities trading, but said
Cooperation. that there were clear signs of their wealth in the
A key role in the Scottish firm has been United Arab Emirates.
played by one of the autocratic president’s neph-
ews, Hajymyrat Rejepov. People declared as the Nine UAE apartments
beneficial owners of the company appear to be “According to leaked real estate ownership data
Rejepov’s employees. from Dubai provided to OCCRP by the research
organization C4ADS, Hajymyrat Rejepov owns
Shamyrat Rejepov and Delanore nine apartments in five buildings in the city:
Another UK company, Delanore, features in Sparkle Tower 2, Damac Heights, Sadaf 4, TFG
agreements to sell petroleum and chemical Marina, which hosts a Wyndham Hotel, and
products from major state oil and gas facilities in the Matrix Tower. Shamyrat owns seven apart-
Turkmenistan, with a secret role played by Hajy- ments in Sparkle Tower 2, Damac Heights, and
myrat’s brother Shamyrat Rejepov. TFG Marina. Except for the Matrix Tower, all
The two brothers have, meanwhile, acquired the buildings are located in the Dubai Marina,
16 apartments in Dubai, a playground for the an upscale neighborhood close to the emirate’s
rich and powerful. iconic man-made archipelago, Palm Jumeirah,”
Looking further at Caran Holdings, the OCCRP stated.
media investigation determined that “though The data, reportedly, does not include the
the company’s shareholders and ultimate ben- dates of purchase, but based on when the apart-
eficiaries have changed on multiple occasions, ments appeared in the database, and the dates
a key figure who played a secretive, controlling the towers were built, they were likely purchased
role was Hajymyrat Rejepov, the nephew of Pres- some time after 2018, the rough period when
ident Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov”. Caran and Delanore appear to have become
“This information is based on the Pandora most active, it added, saying: “By comparing the
Papers, a leak of millions of documents from Rejepovs’ apartments to similar ones currently
providers of offshore corporate services that for sale in the same buildings, OCCRP and part-
was obtained by the International Consortium ners estimated that the brothers’ 16 properties
of Investigative Journalists and shared with are worth approximately $5.5 million.” ™

Week 42 20•October•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P17