Further Arrests and Asset Freezes Tied To Azerbaijani Laundromat

In January 2024, German prosecutors charged four people with bribery and corruption, including two former lawmakers suspected of receiving bribes from Azerbaijan in exchange for voting in Baku’s favor at the Council of Europe. Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner were members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and were implicated in the Azerbaijani Laundromat – a major investigation led by OCCRP and the Danish newspaper Berlingske. 

Published in 2017, the Azerbaijani Laundromat was partially funded by GACC and was our first big collaborative project involving intensive information sharing and cooperation between OCCRP and Transparency International (TI). TI focused much of its subsequent advocacy on Azerbaijani efforts to influence European politicians and the Council of Europe, including through bribery. 

As part of this work, TI and TI Germany filed a criminal complaint with German authorities in 2019, and followed up with continued pressure. Along with the recent indictments, the Munich prosecution office is also investigating Azerbaijani ex-MP Elkhan Suleymanov who is also associated with the payments to PACE politicians. 

This is not the only recent impact.  In February, the UK authorities upheld a freezing order of $50 million worth of assets owned by Azerbaijani lawmaker Javanshir Feyziev. The politician and his family were previously tied to Azerbaijani Laundromat accounts. TI UK had worked on this case as part of its wider engagement on this project.

These latest results follow earlier impacts, including banking reforms in Estonia and legal actions taken against Danske Bank. For example, in December 2022, U.S. authorities announced that Danske Bank had pleaded guilty to fraud charges and will forfeit $2 billion.