Events ·
declaration
Bribery of Italian PACE rapporteur Luca Volonte
2012-09-01 → 2014-12-31 · 2012–2014 · Frozen Conflict, Shifting Power
Italian PACE delegate and rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Luca Volonte received approximately EUR 2.39 million from Azerbaijani parliamentarian Elkhan Suleymanov in 2012-14, channelled through UK shell companies as part of the Aliyev-regime "Azerbaijani Laundromat".
Account
The bribery was the iconic case of the wider caviar diplomacy programme. Volonte led the 2013 PACE rapporteur effort that defeated the Strasser Report on Azerbaijani political prisoners by 125 votes to 79. In 2017 the Guardian-OCCRP investigation "The Azerbaijani Laundromat" documented USD 2.9 billion routed through four UK shell companies between 2012 and 2014 to pay European politicians, of which Volonte received the largest single share.