Agalarov Aras Iskanderovich

Aras Agalarov was born Nov. 8, 1955 in Baku.

In 1977 he graduated from Baku Polytechnic Institute majoring in Computer Engineering.  From 1977 to 1983 he worked at a research institute in Baku, then in the Baku city committee of trade unions. From 1983 to 1987 he attended the Higher School of a Trade Union movement called All-Union Central Council of Trade-Unions (‘VCSPC’) (now - the Academy of Labor and Social Relations) in Moscow. From 1988 to 1990 - Agalarov worked at the Scientific Center for Trade Unions as a junior researcher. He defended his thesis on "Formation and use of the payroll by the example of a telecommunication agency."

Agalarov is President of Crocus Group and the Krasnogorsk Branch of Crocus City, Chairman of CB Crocus Bank, Chairman of the board of directors of "Kroteks" (a chain of hypermarkets "Tvoy Dom"). Part of his business empire is the Crocus City Mall, which has an area of 62,000 m ?, as well as retailer chain Crocus Moscow.

Agalarov takes great interest in social work, he is a Vice-president of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium Enterprises "Support of Russia", the organizer and president of the Union of Manufacturers and Importers, a board member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and vice president of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress.

Married with two children; His son Amin is a businessman, commercial director of Crocus Group; married to the daughter of the President of Azerbaijan, Leyla Aliyeva; and his daughter Sheila is a student at Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, USA.

In 1997 he built the famous luxury 34-apartment complex «Agalarov House», located in one of the most prestigious districts of Moscow, at the intersection of Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street and Klimashkina Street.

In May 2009, Agalarov received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (OMRI) for his significant contribution to the history of the development of economic relations between Russia and Italy.

In the ranking of the top leaders - 2010 by the Kommersant Newspaper he took the first place in the category "Trading".

Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy, December 27, 2008).

In April 2000 journalists wrote about Aras Agalarov in connection with a strange story. There was a regular exhibition of computer technology "Comtek` 2000 in Moscow. In the opening day, it became known that the exhibition had been sold to a new owner. The former owner of it was the company Comtek International; it sold the business to British firm International Trade & Exhibition. In this regard, journalists noted that the second organizer of Comtek – Agalarov’s Company Crocus International played a confusing role in the story of the sale. Comtek International owned the rights to trademarks, database and other intellectual property. And what did Crocus get out of the deal?

The journalists noticed that Crocus was engaged in the organization of the exhibition mainly.

Additional attention to the Comtek was drawn on Wednesday; then, due to an anonymous call on the bomb mortgaged in "Expocentre" all the exhibitors and visitors had been evacuated.

Source: Kommersant № 70 (1955) on 04/21/2000 

In November 2005, Aras Agalarov attracted the journalists’ attention in connection with the fact that being one of owners of the Moscow Cherkizovsky market, he became the owner of a new shopping complex "Grand" in Khimki. In connection with this the journalists noticed quite dramatic signs of nationalism of Agalarov in personnel matters. They noted, in particular, that all the old tech workers of "Grand" of none-Azerbaijanis origin had had problems due to the emergence of new Azeri employees. In addition, it was reported that Crocus City, which owner was also Aras Agalarov, fired 1,500 Russian employees, and hired Azerbaijani working at the Cherkizovsky market instead.

Mass media also reported that the tenants of the furniture trader ‘Grand’ had problems as well,: they feared that they would be replced by Agalarov’s people. Thу gound of the assumption was the fact that the former chairman of the State Customs Committee, Mikhail Vanin was a close friend of Aras Agalarov. Azerbaijani businessman had largely expanded and consolidated his empire due to his familiarity with Vanino, the then "Chief of Customs".

In January 2006, the news appeared that President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev intended to intermarry with Aras Agalarov. The eldest daughter of Aliev - Leila became engaged to 25-year old Emin Agalarov, son of Aras Agalarov.

In late 2006, some journalists called the success of the company “Crocus City" (owned by Agalarov) " foney as it was based on the advertisement of Agalarov. In addition, they reported on a competition between Agalarov and Mountain Jews - God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliev, who had seized vast areas of land outside of Moscow in the immediate vicinity of the areas of Agalarov. Also, the media paid attention that the Mountain Jews owned shares both in the Cherkizovsky market and in "Grand." However, this topic was not discussed by journalists.

It was also reported about a strange economic situation that had developed around one of the projects by Agalarov - a cottage settlement in the New Riga. The project expected investment of $ 1 billion, despite the fact that all the fortune of Aras Agalarov was only on the 145th place in the list of Forbes, then it equaled to $ 150 million

It is through his family relationship with the President of Azerbaijan Agalarov managed  to start a new project in Azerbaijan in 2007. Businessman decided to build a resort area worth of $ 1 billion, located in 200 hectares in Nardaran, a suburb of Baku.

Aras Agalarov told Azerbaijani News Agency Day.az about the creation of “Crocus Azerbaijan", which was going to build a resort area on the Caspian Sea coast. The businessman said that the total area of all buildings of a new resort on the coast of the Absheron peninsula will be 500-600 thousand square meters. There were doubts expressed in the press about the legality of the conditions under which he had received a land plot of 200 hectares, located on two kilometers of coastline.

In February 2008, Voronino villagers from the Istra district of Moscow region appealed to journalists for help. «There is very tense atmosphere around our village”, the village head Alexander Morozov complained.  ZAO Crocus International bought the land around us with the total area of 300 hectares in order to build an elite housing estate, value of its houses is up to 30 million $. The company's representatives say that the village will be demolished and in its place the largest in Europe golf course will be.

Employees of "Crocus International" put a moral pressure on local residents, the majority of which have already been forced to sell their homes. Those remaining had been promised to have unfavorable conditions for living; and they are already doing this. People simply are simply "forced out" of their homes.

Help us to stop this "war for the land and to get the officials attention to our problems."

In late 2008, journalists paid attention to the fact that direct informal contact with the governor of Moscow region Boris Gromov helps Agalarov to quickly promote the construction of new chain of hypermarkets, "Tvoy Dom", and actively expand the Crocus City. They also wrote that the mayor of Novosibirsk, Vladimir Gorodetsky, allocated to the company an area of 43 hectares in the heart of the city on the banks of the River Ob for some reason. They also wrote that the businessman failed to develop a relationship with the Moscow Mayor's office. They either debated about the value of tax deductions in the capital budget, or the authorities did not give the entrepreneur to construct a convenient interchange for entry and exit to the Crocus by the reconstruction of the nearby streets at his own expense. Aras Agalarov expressed the open irritation in this connection.

In December 2009, in Russia there was a unique phenomenon - a real riot on a single enterprise. Several dozen representatives of many thousands of workers tried to enter the administrative building of "Crocus International"; they had been toiling at the sites of the ATES-2012 (nuclear heat and power plant). This company is the prime contractor in the construction of ATES on the island Russky.

Incensed foreign workers demanded to pay their salaries for several months, which Moscow-based company had owed them.

The essence of the conflict was the fact that workers arriving from the former republics of the CIS had been confiscated their passports by smart intermediaries from their own ethnic diasporas; they entered into a contract in their names with the firm of Crocus International, which paid a salary for the work of those intermediaries. Then the latter paid the workers. Of course, in such circumstances deception had been prospering.

In April 2010 the Moscow city government initiated a lawsuit to "Crocus International" owned by Aras Agalarov, demanding to recognize the construction of the cross-over roads to the exhibition complex "Crocus Expo" from the inside Ring Road to be unauthorized. The 100-million-rubles road had been opened about two years beforehand and had no key permits. The administration required to "recognize and acknowledge the construction of it to be an unauthorized ownership."

 

In April 2010, journalists wrote also that Moscow Region Minister Nikolay Pishev had been forcing out barns from the "golden" land in order to release space for the "preserve of millionaires" by Aras Agalarov. The farm Rus-Invest was located on Novorizhskoye Highway. Multi-million dollar mansions of the villagers of Agalarov Estate had grown very close to the farmlands. Part of the houses had broken all the imaginable norms of building; they turned out to be literally outside the barns fence. The farm occupied a big land plot, and Agalarov decided to demolish it under the pretext by the hands of officials.

A commission was established, headed by the Minister for State administrative and technical supervision of the Moscow Region Government, Nikolay Pavlovich Pishev. At the first meeting, he stated bluntly - the farm should be closed, because it interferes with normal life! Journalists linked the happening with friendship between the Governor of Moscow region Boris Gromov and Aras Agalarov.