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Leyla Ilham gizi Aliyeva (, born 3 July 1985) is an Azerbaijani politician who is a member of Azerbaijan's ruling Aliyev family, as the daughter of the current president, Ilham Aliyev, and granddaughter of the former president, Heydar Aliyev.
Aliyeva and her family have substantial wealth stashed in elaborate networks of offshore companies. She and her sister Arzu Aliyeva own Azerfon, one of the largest mobile operators in Azerbaijan through three Panamanian offshore companies. Offshore companies owned by the sisters were also awarded mining rights worth billions of dollars by the Azerbaijan government. They also own PASHA Holding, a conglomerate that has been embroiled in high-level corruption.
In 2005, Ilham Aliyev's regime granted license for a new mobile operator, Azerfon, to enter the Azerbaijani market. In 2011, investigative reporting revealed that Leyla Aliyeva and her sister Arzu owned 72% of the operator through three Panamanian offshore companies.
In 2006, Ilham Aliyev awarded mining rights for six gold fields worth billions of dollars to a four-company consortium owned by his daughters through offshore companies. The contract did not follow normal bidding procedures, the identity of the consortium owners was unknown, and the consortium had no history of mining. Over the course of several years, the consortium failed to make profits, as the secretive ownership structure inhibited the companies' ability to sell on the world market. The consortium unsuccessfully sought to sell itself to a private buyer. In 2016, their father Ilham Aliyev ordered the state-owned company Azergold (formed in 2015) to purchase the four-company consortium. As part of the secret deal, the daughter would receive 70% of all future mining profits while the state would just receive the remaining 30%.
Aliyeva is vice-president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a charity run by the Aliyev ruling family in Azerbaijan. Leyla and her sister own a number of banks in Azerbaijan. She is editor-in-chief of the style magazine Baku, launched in 2011. Aliyeva has been involved in efforts to promote Azerbaijan in Russia. The Azerbaijan government has given her multiple awards. She has also been given multiple awards by Russian institutions.
She was the executive producer of the 2016 film Ali and Nino, based on the novel of the same name by an Azerbaijani writer.
In 2010, The Washington Post reported that Leyla along with her sister Arzu Aliyeva and brother Heydar own real estate in Dubai that is worth about $75 million. In 2006, she obtained a property in Mayendorf Gardens, a gated community in Moscow.
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