Billionaires have always drawn the ire and wrath of critics for spoiling their children with expensive gifts. The latest billionaire doting dad to be showered with criticisms is the President of Azerbaijan, who has reportedly purchased nine luxury mansions in Dubai worth millions of dollars in the name of his 11-year-old son. The lavish properties have been registered under Heydar Aliyev, the son of President Aliyev, with Dubai’s Land Department. The Washington Post reported that the properties were bought in a two-week shopping spree last year for about $44 million. Besides his son, the President’s daughters Leyla and Arzu, also appeared as the owners of Dubai properties, bringing the total value of the children’s alleged property portfolio to $75 million.
These lavish spending sprees have highlighted the recent allegations of corruption surrounding the Soviet republic. Although the nation is booming due to oil revenues up to $7 billion last year alone, most of its eight million people endure harsh poverty. Up to a million are refugees from the frozen conflict with Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The President, whose official salary in Azerbaijan is about $228,000 a year, will surely find it hard to get away with such extravagant spending. Spokespeople at the presidential administration in Baku refused to make any comments regarding the President’s property purchasing spree.
[Timesonline]
