Shadow Fleet’s Money Mixologist Evades Sanctions
In May 2016, a villa at 17 Marlborough Place in London’s St John’s Wood changed hands for £6.5 million. The buyers were listed as Azim Novruzov and Ilhama Novruzova. With taxes and fees, the total outlay reached nearly £10 million. The property sits in what estate agents like to call the “billionaire quarter.” The money, according to investigative reporting, came from Russian oil.
Azim Novruzov is described as a close associate of Tahir Garayev, the Azerbaijani businessman who founded Coral Energy – since rebranded as 2Rivers Group. That network has been sanctioned by both the UK and the EU for enabling Russian oil exports, particularly from Rosneft, by concealing the crude’s true origin. The 2Rivers network controls a substantial portion of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the informal tanker network that keeps Moscow’s oil revenues flowing despite Western restrictions.
Washington Loses Sight of Larger Network
Washington, in its fight against Iranian oil exports, is losing sight of the rest of the network? The appearance of traders such as CE Energy (now Petrichor) and Wellbred on recent US sanctions lists — alongside other players — highlights a simple truth: these traders do not disappear under pressure. They operate at full capacity — with or without sanctions.
Let us look beyond the names already on the lists and work out who else may be helping this machine to run.
Coral’s Shadow Trading Firm
Coral is the largest Russian trader, grown out of the Azerbaijani financial structure SOCAR Energy. In essence, a huge shadow trading firm built on several hundred offshore companies, with the largest fleet of shadow vessels, storage hubs in Indonesia and Malaysia and beyond. Coral stated that it would wind down its Russian business in 2023.
But, as we see, subsequent investigation documents continue to show that they remain the largest traders under various names — 2Rivers — with bases in Dubai, Geneva, Monaco and other EU jurisdictions, under the control of Tahir Garayev, Etibar Eyyub, Anar Madatli, Talat Safarov and Ahmed Kerimov. They continue to expand a network of money laundering, bank transfer fraud and schemes linked to Iranian oil. These transactions are facilitated by banks such as Misr Bank and Mashreq, and UBOs around the world. This network is coordinated by Araz Hajili, the nephew of Azim Novruzov.
German Oil Trader’s Role in Ecosystem
Also featuring here is a young German upstart who likes to be known as a “big boy” and a “party animal.” He has become a significant part of this ecosystem, operating within the Coral network to move Russian and other sanctioned products.
Original Article: Azim Novruzov, the Shadow Fleet’s own money mixologist, evades the sanctions imposed on Petrichor and Wellbred – Trinity Bugle — Trinitybugle