Azerbaijani oil traders in the shadows: The methods Rovshan Tamrazov, Maddox, and SOCAR use to bypass sanctions, reorganize assets, and handle Russian oil with the help of global companies
The network of "shadow" Azerbaijani oil traders trading Russian oil in defiance of sanctions is much more extensive than previously thought. It remains closely linked to the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR – Russian sanctioned oil is sold by current SOCAR employees, and deliveries are made through the state-owned company’s subsidiaries.
In addition to the five already well-known figures of Coral Energy, led by Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub, it includes several other former SOCAR employees, as well as Georgian, Arab, Hungarian, and Swiss companies. It is headed by Azerbaijani citizen Rovshan Tamrazov. He trades crude oil in the markets of the Caspian, Black, and Baltic Seas, as well as other regions.
Rovshan Tamrazov attended the same school as Adnan Akhmedzade, deputy head of SOCAR’s investment department. The latter was arrested a couple of months ago and is currently in custody on charges of undermining Azerbaijan’s economic security and embezzlement on an especially large scale.
Before the war, Tamrazov had a separate representative office of his company, Maddox, operating in Ukraine. Back in 2021, he, like Tahir Garayev, received a contract from Igor Sechin’s Rosneft to supply oil to Ukraine. The diesel fuel escapades in Ukraine didn’t stop Tamrazov and his contacts at SOCAR. Since then, their network of companies has expanded significantly.
One of Tamrazov’s first companies was a firm in Switzerland. In 2013, Tamrazov acquired PS Trading SA in Geneva, whose primary activity was brokering petroleum products. In 2015, he renamed it Maddox SA. In 2016, Rovshan permanently moved from his native Azerbaijan to Dubai and launched an equally vigorous operation there. He registered Maddox DMCC in Dubai back in 2012. This company oversees Tamrazov’s other offices, including Singapore, Switzerland, and Georgia. It assumed primary trading operations for petroleum products – according to Volza data, it handled 273 imports and 149 exports. Maddox exported large quantities of fuel from Russia through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Turkey, Brazil, India, and Ukraine.
The Dubai office is currently headed by director Nubar Aliyeva, and Azerbaijani citizen Novruz Alekperov also works there. Nubar Aliyeva was previously a director at Danais Trade Ltd (Malta), whose shares were owned by Dubai-based Maddox DMCC. She also co-directed the Maltese firm with Olena Perrin, who also appeared in the Swiss Maddox SA – meaning she is clearly no stranger to the Azerbaijani traders’ scheme. In 2021, the Maltese company was liquidated, but another interesting company, Argo Navis Limited, is located at the same address. This is another subsidiary of Dubai-based Maddox DMCC, and is headed by the same Olena Perrin.
Incidentally, she currently works for the official subsidiary of the Azerbaijani state-owned company, SOCAR Trading SA, and also heads the Singaporean oil trading firm Stamford Oil Limited Pte. Her email address is listed on the company’s website. This company is also part of the MADDOX network and trades Russian petroleum products, and also owns warehouse space in Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, and Bulgaria.
Furthermore, Russian oil supplies were recently routed directly through SOCAR subsidiaries. For example, in 2023, Socar Marketing and Operations made five deliveries of petroleum products for Socar Logistics DMCC on behalf of Maddox DMCC. These transactions are recorded in the Volza international trading database. Premier Group LLC acted as the supplier to Russia.
Who is Olena Perrin? She is one of Maddox’s shareholders, a Ukrainian citizen who previously worked for companies owned by Nisan Moiseyev, a business partner of Viktor Medvedchuk. Until 2021, she was an administrator at GLUSCO Energy SA (now Greenenergo Trading SA), a Swiss company that owned a chain of gas stations in Ukraine with the same name. GLUSCO belonged to Nisan Moiseyev, but Viktor Medvedchuk was considered the real owner.
