Journalists presented a new investigation into the activities of the family of Khabibula Abdukadyr. This is about how the money transferred from Kyrgyzstan had been spent.
From Dubai to the USA
Since 2012, hundreds of millions of dollars have migrated from Kyrgyzstan to banks in Europe, the United States and the Middle East at the behest of the Abdukadyrs. According to journalists, dozens of real estate property objects have been bought and built at the expense of the money in the vast expanses from the Persian Gulf to the beaches of California. A mansion in one of the most prestigious areas of London and a house in Washington for $ 1.2 million are among them. Money was also invested in construction of one of the projects — a 26-story residential building in Dubai.
The money went through the company of Khabibula Abdukadyr AKA Group.
And elite real estate was purchased for it or it was invested in construction projects.
To send money abroad, the Abdukadyrs used the services of Aierken Saimaiti, a professional in money laundering, as he called himself. According to Saimaiti, in total, he had sent more than $ 700 million abroad.
Organizations of Open Democracy and Transparency International UK shared with journalists documents on the property of the Abdukadyrs. In addition, transfers of at least $ 75 million to bank accounts in the European Union, opened for the Abdukadyrs, and affiliated with them companies were found.
Money transfers have been made from 2014 to 2017. Other $ 30 million had been transferred to the family accounts at the Bank of America in the United States, while $ 104 million ended up in Dubai.
These figures are consistent with the amounts found by the State Service for Combating Economic Crimes within the case on Saimaiti’s transfers. The law enforcement reports also state about $ 27 million sent to the Netherlands and $ 81 million — to Latvia.
Journalists found at least 20 objects that the Abdukadyrs have bought. The total cost of these mansions, city apartments, luxury high-rise hotels is impossible to calculate.
The Abdukadyrs bought ready-made real estate for $ 44 million in the UK, in Dubai — for $ 19 million, in the USA — for $ 2 million. Data on Germany was not available.
At the same time, the money was transferred either under fake contracts, or by drawing up payment orders, supposedly, for the supply of fabrics.
«These are huge transfers from a poor country — they should have attracted attention,» an expert on the shadow economy Graham Barrow, who advises banks on anti-money laundering issues, says.
According to the AKA website (it doesn’t work now), the key companies in the network were AKA International and MBL Investments in Dubai, AKA Petroleum and AKA Immobilien (renamed into AKA Group) in Germany and AKA London Trading (renamed into Miran International) in the UK.
Neither Khabibula Abdukadyr, nor representatives of his family or companies respond to journalists’ requests.
Objects in Germany: everlasting incomplete construction
In 2015, the German city of Augsburg announced a project for a six-story post-war building occupying an entire block along Schmiedberg — a key east-west highway in central Augsburg. At first, it was supposed to be a hotel, which was planned to be built by 2016. The latest plan is to turn it into a housing complex and complete the work by March 2019.
Over the past eight years, the facility has been owned by the AKA Group of the Abdukadyrs.
But it is known that the Abdukadyrs acquired a plot of land in Vaterstetten, which is located east of Munich. By December 2017, a hotel with 220 rooms was supposed to be built there, but the Abdukadyrs has sold this land plot later.
The AKA website also featured a hotel in the German resort town Bad Vilbel, northeast of Frankfurt, and plans to develop a hotel in Dietzenbach, southeast of Frankfurt. However, these projects do not exist.
United Kingdom: luxury apartments and mansion
Uxbridge Road is a large street with many retail outlets in Ealing area of West London. In 2007, it became known that a new railway would pass through this area — Elizabeth Line.
The Abdukadyrs acquired a property known as Dawley House there in 2016 for $ 28 million. The family had big plans for this object: a 12-storey glass hotel with 113 rooms, «a cafe on the ground floor, conference rooms and a fitness center.» But in fact, almost nothing has happened at the construction site for the last three years after the previous building was demolished.
The Abdukadyrs clan owns at least four other properties in London, for which they had paid about $ 16 million. One of them is an empty piece of land. The son of Abdukadyr, Palivanmukhaimaiti Aibibula, bought a luxury apartment with a view of the Thames for more than $ 2 million dollars in 2016.
But the family’s most expensive object is a mansion in one of the city’s most prestigious districts, the green private estate Cumby Park in Kingston upon Thames.
USA: mansions and expensive cars
In 2013, Khabibula Abdukadyr and his family opened a series of shell companies and acquired two houses: one in California, the other — in Virginia.
The first is a four-bedroom, three-bathroom mansion north of Los Angeles; it also has a pool and hot tub. Two sons of Abdukadyr bought this house in November 2013 for $ 722,000 and sold it in August 2019 for $ 785,000.
The second house is located in Great Falls, Virginia; it was bought in April 2018 for almost $ 1.3 million. Officially, this two-story brick mansion was acquired by AKA Development — it was established a year earlier by a man named Yamaimaiti Aibibula. Several interlocutors called him the son of Khabibula Abdukadyr.
The company officially carried out four operations for the import of building materials from August 2018 to June 2019, as well as the import of 29 items of furniture that the Abdukadyrs sent in October on behalf of their Turkish company Palvan Insaat Turizm Lojistik San.
In addition to furniture, the family had imported at least two expensive cars to the United States.
The 2011 Lamborghini and the 2008 Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV were shipped to Yamaimaiti at the address of the family’s house in Virginia — this is said in official customs documents.
Dubai: the largest investment
The Abdukadyrs made the largest investments in Dubai. They used tens of millions of dollars transferred from Kyrgyzstan to buy real estate in this emirate and launch construction projects.
In Dubai, they own AKA International, formerly known as ABL Hospitality Management.
Former courier of the family Aierken Saimaiti claimed that the territory he called «Marina» was one of the main sites for the construction projects of the Abdukadyrs. The already inoperative AKA website once advertised its flagship project called AKA Marina Hotel & Residences.
«The grand new facility under construction,» just 500 meters from the sea coast, was described as two towers — a 23-story hotel and a 60-story residential building, connected with each other by a «panoramic deck bridge for relaxation» with a «boundless pool.» The website stated that the object was at the stage of «preliminary commissioning», although its current status is unclear.
One of them is AKA Residence, a 26-story residential building with 220 apartments, already nearly completed, according to local business media outlets. The building is located in the new quarter Jumeirah Village Circle in the heart of Dubai.
Journalists could not confirm how much money the Abdukadyrs have invested in this project, but the budget of the main contractor was $ 40 million. Real estate rental sites already offer apartments in this building — a two-bedroom apartment of 145 square meters costs about $ 21,800 per year.
AKA’s second important construction project is MBL Residence, a 45-story luxury residential building, part of the huge Jumeirah Lake Towers quarter under construction. This project was advertised on the AKA website as one of the group’s major investments. The Abdukadyrs also invested in a five-story house in Dubai, which is in the final stage of construction.
According to journalists, the land on which the building is located belongs to the wife of Raiymbek Matraimov. She is also a co-investor in the construction project.
In addition to investments in construction projects, the Abdukadyrs seems to have made a number of acquisitions in Dubai for personal purposes. The leakage database of Dubai’s private real estate shows that the Abdukadyrs and an employee of the family company have purchased at least seven real estate property objects. The property of the Abdukadyrs includes four villas in Jumeirah Park — an area with more than 2,000 houses. The family had paid more than $ 5 million for them. They were purchased by Khabibula Abdukadyr himself, his two brothers and an employee, who manages a Turkish company of the family.
Khabibula also owns a villa in the nearby quarter Jumeirah Islands, for which he had paid $ 650,000.
Two more apartments — one in a building on an artificial island in the form of a tree called Palm Jumeirah and another one — in Al-Dafra skyscraper nearby — were purchased by one of the sons and a relative of Khabibula for a total of $ 448,000.
