As leaked data show, there are many admirers of luxury homes in Dubai among Tajikistan’s political elite. President Emomali Rahmon’s grandson bought a three-bedroom home in this city’s coastal area, valued at $1.3 million.
According to documents, when this luxury home was purchased, the boy was only 9 years old.
This investigation is part of the Dubai Unlocked project and is based on leaked data covering hundreds of thousands of Dubai real-estate owners.
About Dubai Unlocked
- The Dubai Unlocked project is based on a series of leaked datasets containing detailed information on hundreds of thousands of Dubai real-estate properties, as well as information about their owners or tenants. Most of the data we received relate to 2020 and 2022.
- The documents reached the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington-based nonprofit that investigates international crime and conflict. The organization shared the data with the Norwegian financial outlet E24 and OCCRP, which coordinated the investigation with dozens of partners worldwide.
- We obtained detailed information about the official owner of each home: date of birth, passport number, and citizenship. In some cases, the documents list the tenant’s details rather than the owner’s.
- Journalists used the obtained data as a starting point for their investigations. Over several months, they examined the personal details of real-estate owners in the leaked documents, the current status of each property using official and open sources, and additional leaked data.
The leaked data do not make it clear how much the President of Tajikistan’s grandson, Erajjjon Gulov—now 18—paid to purchase a 210-square-meter residence on the famous Palm Jumeirah islands. However, based on the home’s size and Dubai real-estate prices, it is now worth more than $1.3 million. According to the Dubai Land Department record, it still belongs to Erajjjon Gulov, and renting such a home costs $55,000 per year.
It is still unclear how the underage Erajjjon was able at the time to pay for a home of this value from his parents’ income. When the home was purchased, his mother, Parvina Rahmonova, had no source of income. According to the Tajik government website, her husband, Ashrafjon Gulov, was then head of the Consular Service at Tajikistan’s embassy in Moscow. Before that, he worked as head of the Large Taxpayers Directorate of Tajikistan’s Tax Committee.
In Tajikistan, officials are not required to report their salaries and taxes, but in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs vacancy list published by the agency in 2022, the highest salary is that of a deputy minister—only $200 per month.
“Ashraf Gulov’s salary as an embassy employee would not have allowed him to buy a $1.3 million home in Dubai,” says Edward Lemon, a Central Asia expert and professor at Texas A&M University.
Photo: InternetEven so, in 2015 Rahmonova and Gulov were markedly different from an average Tajik family. Ashrafjon’s father, Sherali Gulov, is another member of the country’s political elite. From 2006 to 2013, he served as Tajikistan’s minister of energy and industry. Parvina’s father, Emomali Rahmon, has led the country for more than twenty years. Human rights advocates describe his government as one of the most corrupt and nepotistic in Central Asia.
A 2015 Freedom House report states that Rahmon’s inner circle “gain privileges based on nepotism and cronyism.” The report notes that “government posts, especially those related to taxation or trade, are particularly in demand.”
Erajjjon Gulov and his parents did not respond to our requests for comment.
Under a 1985 UAE law, children aged 7 to 18 may own real estate only with the permission of a legal guardian.
According to the leaked data, Gulov’s legal guardian was not listed when the home at Tanzanite Residence was purchased, and it is unclear who it was. However, the property sale document includes the email address of Suhrob Mirzoaliev, who once worked at Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He did not respond to our request for comment on this point.
Colin Powers, a research fellow and editor-in-chief at the nonprofit research organization Noria MENA Program, notes that selling real estate to minors is one of many mechanisms Dubai uses to evade oversight and attract capital.
According to Powers, wealthy individuals buy real estate abroad in the names of their minor children to conceal illicit income and reduce their tax payments.
“This is just another method the world’s elites use to hide and invest in the real-estate market. I do not think it is a smart move. It is not that difficult to determine whose grandchild or child they are. But it does add work,” he says.
Azda TV journalists found several more members of the Tajik elite among Dubai real-estate owners, including the wife of Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda, the head of Interpol’s local bureau Shahriyor Nazriev, and Rahmon’s relatives.
All in the Family
Many relatives of Tajikistan’s 72-year-old president, who has nine children, hold senior positions in government and finance. His daughter Ozoda heads the President’s Executive Office, and another daughter, Zarina, is deputy chair of “Orienbank,” the country’s largest commercial bank.
The president’s son, Rustam Emomali, is mayor of Dushanbe and chair of the National Assembly (the upper house of parliament). In this role, he is considered the official candidate to assume the presidency.
Parvina Rahmonova and Ashrafjon Gulov are less visible to the public than other family members. In an interview with the state newspaper “Tajiks of Russia,” published in 2014 by the independent outlet “Asia-Plus,” Gulov said he did not come to Moscow through family connections, and that his appointment would not diminish consular services in Russia, which he called “one of the most difficult areas of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ foreign-policy work.”
“If I was truly appointed to this post thanks to nepotism, then why was I not given a ‘calmer’ and ‘more lucrative’ position?” he asked.
Gulov came to Moscow after the Russian government tightened the migration process for Tajik citizens who work and live in the country. Russia’s policy forced tens of thousands of Tajik migrants to obtain expensive biometric passports. Sometimes this was done through intermediaries who, for an additional fee, promised to speed up the process. In an interview with “Tajiks of Russia,” published on the “Asia-Plus” website, Gulov acknowledged that such “intermediaries” exist, but claimed that his staff had no ties to them and that otherwise he would “take measures.”
After Moscow, Gulov worked briefly at Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from 2021 to 2024 served as Tajikistan’s ambassador to Turkey. His wife then went into business and founded the pharmaceutical company “Sifat Pharma,” which has several pink-and-white pharmacies in Dushanbe. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the company won numerous government tenders to supply ventilators and other medical equipment. According to Radio Ozodi, Sifat Pharma has signed state contracts worth several million dollars since its founding in 2017.
As ambassador, Gulov organized webinars on medical cooperation between Tajikistan and Turkey and arranged visits by Turkish businesspeople to Tajikistan, resulting in Sifat’s subsidiary signing a contract with the Turkish equipment manufacturer Dundarlar.
Gulov owns several houses and compounds in Dushanbe. OCCRP and Azda TV found several real-estate properties registered in Gulov’s name, including a building that houses the head office of the International Bank of Tajikistan.
In August 2024, Gulov was appointed Tajikistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Eldiyor Arikboev (OCCRP), Firuzi Mahmadali (Azda TV), Muhammadjon Kabirov (Azda TV