A New York luxurious landlord named among the many alleged “straw donors” within the felony case in opposition to Mayor Eric Adams has ties to the Uzbek proprietor of a billion-dollar vitality firm as soon as co-owned by a Kremlin-run financial institution.
The alleged straw donor was named by New York media as Tolib Mansurov, an Uzbek nationwide distinguished within the metropolis’s Central Asian neighborhood, who seems as the one public director and shareholder of two New York State-registered firms that personal tens of millions of {dollars} of Brooklyn actual property.
In truth, a brand new investigation reveals, Mansurov’s property companies have been, till 2020, majority-owned by a Cyprus-registered firm with shut hyperlinks to Uzbek vitality and building tycoon Bakhtiyor Fazilov, who has, up to now, had in depth enterprise dealings with highly effective Russian pursuits.
Final week, President Trump’s Justice Division instructed federal prosecutors to dismiss all expenses in opposition to Adams, prompting the high-profile resignations of the appearing U.S. lawyer in Manhattan and high Justice Division officers in Washington. On Feb. 17, 4 of Adams’ deputy mayors resigned, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned she was contemplating whether or not to take away Adams from workplace.
The order was the most recent in a collection of bombshells rocking New York Metropolis politics since a federal grand jury in September indicted the mayor on felony expenses of bribery, conspiracy and soliciting marketing campaign contributions from straw donors – people who make unlawful political donations on behalf of foreigners or others searching for to cover their identification and exceed donation limits.
Whereas the alleged straw donors within the Adams case weren’t named, New York information organizations have recognized a number of, together with Mansurov, a longtime U.S. resident whose developments dot Brooklyn’s gentrifying areas such because the Crown Heights neighborhood and Fourth Avenue.
However an investigation by the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzbek Service and UzInvestigations has discovered that Mansurov’s property enterprise is 51% owned by a Cyprus-registered firm, Saltamo Ltd., which is owned by the top of a Cyprus offshore providers agency that gives so-called nominees, or stand-ins, to masks the identities of the true house owners.
An organization owned by the “similar pure individual” as Saltamo pledged securities to a financial institution with a purpose to enable Saltamo to take out tens of millions in {dollars} in loans. The pledging firm, Erillico, is 100% owned by Fazilov.
A spokesperson for Fazilov advised ICIJ that he had “had no private involvement in any of the issues you increase.”
In an e-mail to ICIJ, Mansurov mentioned that he had “had no enterprise dealings” with Fazilov.
Fazilov, 49, is chairman and sole proprietor of Eriell Group, an enormous Uzbek vitality firm previously based mostly in Moscow that since 2017 has received billions of {dollars} in state contracts for Uzbekistan’s mammoth pure fuel sector. His building firm, Enter Engineering, has erected a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} value of fuel, oil and different industrial infrastructure, in addition to new tourism websites and an ice hockey enviornment for Tashkent, the Uzbek capital.
Each Eriell and Enter Engineering have been financed over the previous 15 years by Gazprombank whose possession and administration construction have attracted scrutiny for ties to key allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gazprombank is the monetary arm of the bulk Russian state-owned vitality big, Gazprom.
Previous to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Eriell Group counted Gazprombank as a 25% shareholder. One other former shareholder in Eriell, which has since divested, is a former govt of an organization owned by billionaire Gennady Timchenko, thought-about one in every of Putin’s closest oligarch allies. Each Gazprombank and Timchenko have been positioned underneath Western sanctions since 2022. Fazilov has beforehand denied any dealings with Timchenko.
“The Eriell Group underwent restructuring in 2022 in response to the struggle in Ukraine. As such, any references to previous relationships are deceptive and quantity to a cynical try and introduce a ‘Russia’ angle into your story. This seems to be a deliberate try and manufacture public curiosity the place none exists,” a spokesperson for Fazilov advised ICIJ.
Additional, Fazilov counts members of the family of two former high-ranking personnel in Uzbekistan’s infamous safety providers amongst his enterprise companions in Russian property and agricultural companies.
One in all them, Sharif Inoyatov, is the son of ex-security service chief Rustam Inoyatov, who’s extensively thought to be one in every of Uzbekistan’s “gray cardinals,” the shadowy safety service gamers who run the Central Asian nation’s financial and political life – and who’s reported to be near the Kremlin.
Mansurov’s ties to Fazilov’s companies and different highly effective Uzbek pursuits, which in flip are tied to highly effective Russian pursuits, present new perception into the abroad enterprise connections of one of many alleged straw donors to Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign.
“All of Mr Fazilov’s private and group transactions are carried out to the best worldwide requirements. This implies they’re reviewed by worldwide banks and attorneys. Any try and painting Mr Fazilov’s pursuits in a unfavorable gentle would subsequently be defamatory,” a spokesperson advised ICIJ.
Silk Highway
Initially from Samarkand a metropolis alongside the traditional Silk Highway commerce route, Mansurov based his New York luxurious renovation firm, United Elite Group LLC, in 2012, and his actual property holding World Industries LLC in 2015.
That very same 12 months, a Cyprus-registered firm, Saltamo Restricted, recorded a 51% curiosity in Mansurov’s World Industries, and lent the New York firm $400,000.
Saltamo had shut ties to Fazilov, then a quick rising vitality tycoon. The helpful proprietor of Saltamo was a Belize-registered agency that had beforehand held shares in Eriell, the worldwide vitality big partly owned by Fazilov.
In 2015, Fazilov’s Eriell was 39% owned by Gazprombank, and labored on drilling contracts for Lukoil, the enormous Russian oil firm, in Iraq, Uzbekistan and the Arctic, together with Gazprom, the state majority-owned vitality big.
The prospects of each Enter Engineering and Eriell soared after strongman Shavkat Mirziyoyev was elected Uzbekistan’s president in late 2016. Fazilov has turn into one of the profitable businessmen of Mirziyoyev’s “new Uzbekistan” agenda, which has sought expanded diplomatic relationships and a contemporary, liberalized economic system.
Between 2017 and 2022, Eriell says it acquired $2.3 billion in state contracts as a part of Mirziyoyev’s drive to unlock Uzbekistan’s pure fuel wealth, constructing a whole lot of kilometres of fuel pipeline and drilling a whole lot of wells. It did so underneath a three way partnership with Uzbek state fuel firm Uzbekneftegaz and Russia’s Gazprom.
A mortgage doc filed with the Cyprus authorities in 2019 reveals {that a} Cyprus firm owned by Fazilov, Erilico Restricted, pledged its accounts to Credit score Suisse with a purpose to safe a mortgage facility for Saltamo.
“Each the client [Saltamo] and the assignor [Erilico] belong to the identical pure individual,” the doc reads, suggesting that Fazilov was the proprietor of the Belize firm that finally owned Saltamo.
Fazilov didn’t reply to a query about whether or not he was the helpful proprietor of Saltamo.
In keeping with a year-end 2020 monetary assertion, Saltamo had drawn practically $21 million in loans from Credit score Suisse, which have been “secured by a pledge on securities of a associated firm held with the lending Financial institution.” Across the similar time, the Fazilov-linked Saltamo loaned funds to Mansurov’s New York actual property agency, World Industries, in keeping with monetary data reviewed by ICIJ. Neither Fazilov, nor Mansurov answered ICIJ’s query about whether or not the funds loaned by Credit score Suisse had been used to buy New York actual property.
Mansurov advised ICIJ that each one his “transactions have been carried out by way of revered attorneys in the US and controlled monetary establishments.
“The offers have been totally vetted and, subsequently, any suggestion that our actions have been illegitimate could be deeply defamatory.”
Saltamo later reported that, throughout 2019, its helpful possession had switched. The Belize firm had transferred its shares in Saltamo to the proprietor of the Cyprus company service supplier which acts as secretary to Saltamo, Bahodir Gafurov.
In keeping with a evaluation of company filings by ICIJ, Gafurov’s firm, Epamina Company, at present acts as secretary to 16 Cyprus-registered firms the place Fazilov is a helpful proprietor. Epamina didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Gafurov has beforehand served as a director at Eriell, and in 2022 was reported because the co-founder (49%) along with Fazilov (51%) of a brand new Uzbek airline, Sam Air. Gafurov can also be first vp of the Hockey Federation of Uzbekistan, the place Fazilov is president. Gafurov is listed as a co-owner of a Russian feed plant alongside Fazilov and Sharif Inoyatov.
Mansurov advised ICIJ that Gafurov was his enterprise accomplice, who had invested by way of his Cyprus firm. He didn’t say who owned the remaining 49% of World Industries.
“I do work carefully with Mr. Fazilov, however the New York property investments you’re referring to don’t contain him in any respect,” Gafurov advised ICIJ in an e-mail after publication.
In 2020, World Industries bought a $13.2 million residence block in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, in addition to a $8 million website simply east of Prospect Park.
In a Could 2024 submitting, Fazilov’s Erilico reported that its pledge of accounts to safe Saltamo’s mortgage facility had been transferred to UBS after the latter’s acquisition of Credit score Suisse, displaying that Fazilov’s firm was nonetheless offering safety for the loans of the corporate that 51% owns Mansurov’s New York agency.
The Justice Division’s indictment alleges that Adams’ staffers took $10,000 in straw donations from staff of Mansurov on behalf of the developer, known as “Businessman-4,” for the 2021 New York mayoral marketing campaign.
I at all times supported you,
— Tolib Mansurov in a textual content to Mayor Eric Adams
In return, the indictment alleges, the Adams staffers assisted Mansurov in fixing allowing issues involving his Brooklyn actual property and boosting the profile of his Uzbek neighborhood charity, the Silk Highway Basis, which he based in 2023.
Mansurov advised ICIJ that he was “unable to touch upon the investigation into Mayor Adams.”
The indictment alleges that behind the scenes, Mansurov sought Adams’ help in coping with the town forms over a website in Crown Heights, which World Industries had bought for improvement for $8 million in 2020.
Specifically, Mansurov allegedly requested Adams for assist with a 2023 stop-work order for the positioning, 408 Lefferts Ave., from the town’s Buildings Division.
“I at all times supported you,” Mansurov texted Adams in February that 12 months. “Having a tough time with DOB [Department of Buildings] … we reached a sure restrict that solely you possibly can carry.”
Every week and a half later, the indictment says Mansurov texted Adams to thank him, saying the “DOB subject” had been “partially resolved.”
The New York Metropolis Buildings Division advised ICIJ that the stop-work order had first been partially lifted after required technical reviews had been filed, and particular technical personnel have been discovered current on website.
The division declined to touch upon whether or not Mayor Adams had contacted officers there about Mansurov’s issues.
The indictment alleges Mansurov requested Adams and his crew for help in “arranging occasions celebrating the [Uzbek] nationwide heritage” with metropolis sponsorship after the 2021 New York mayoral election.
Media reviews present Adams hosted or attended 4 occasions selling the Silk Highway Basis in 2023 and 2024, a Brooklyn-based neighborhood group serving Central Asians, the place he endorsed Mansurov as “my brother” and “a frontrunner.” At one occasion, Adams even forged himself as “the primary Uzbek mayor” of New York.
At an Uzbek Independence Day celebration on the metropolis’s iconic Bowling Inexperienced park in 2023, Adams declared New York “the Tashkent of America.”
Adams denies the costs specified by the Justice Division’s indictment, and has remained in workplace. His lawyer didn’t return ICIJ’s requests for remark.
“Who I’m is just not within the headlines, it’s in my historical past,” Adams mentioned on Feb. 11. “As I mentioned from the outset, I by no means broke the regulation and I by no means would.”
Commenting on the Justice Division’s determination to drop the case, Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro mentioned: “As I mentioned from the outset, the mayor is harmless – and he would prevail. Right now, he has.”
Replace Feb. 19, 2025: This text has been up to date with a remark from Bahodir Gafurov.
