Documents reveal that lawyers at Child & Child set up a secret, offshore company called Exaltation Ltd last year on behalf of Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva – daughters of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev – for the purpose of ‘holding UK property’.

Since their father took office in 2003, President Aliyev’s daughters have reportedly amassed vast personal business empires, with interests in telecoms and gold mining as well as an extensive property portfolio believed to be worth in excess of £50m.

Under British rules, anyone with a close association or connection with a senior political figure would be considered a PEP. But despite their clients having a president as a father, lawyers at Child & Child put a cross in the box marked ‘no’.

According to The Guardian, PEPs are within their rights to own a business offshore, but they should – due to the nature of their ownership – be subject to ‘greater scrutiny and due diligence checks by banks’.

Child & Child has declined to comment.  

Sources: The Guardian; Legal Cheek