This is reported by The Insider, summarizing an investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde. The publication notes that previously neither the French press nor diplomats had reported on Sahan’s fate. Mehmet Sahan, a citizen of Turkey and France, headed Thales’ division in Azerbaijan from 2014 to 2021 and claims that some contracts involving the company were concluded without a tender.
The case against him was opened at the request of Thales management, which accused the former employee of large-scale embezzlement while working at the Baku office. Sahan rejects these accusations and says the prosecution is linked to his interest in corruption schemes in the company’s activities in Azerbaijan.
The French financial prosecutor’s office confirmed to Le Monde that in June 2023 it opened an investigation into Thales, and in 2024 it carried out searches at the company’s offices in France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The prosecutor’s office said the proceedings were related to questions about Thales contracts in Azerbaijan, but did not disclose details.
In response to a request from Le Monde, Thales expressed regret over the spread of false claims distorting the real situation and did not answer a single question from the publication. Among the projects in Azerbaijan that Sahan mentioned were the modernization of the Kürdamir military base, the construction of a radar tower at Baku airport, and other works.
According to Sahan, Thales relied heavily on the local consultant VES Consultancy and the Luxembourg company Concept.com, linked through Khagani Bashirov, an Azerbaijan-born holder of a French passport who acted for them as a shareholder or board member. Le Monde recalls that in 2011 Bashirov was mentioned in anti-corruption investigations by Azerbaijani journalists: at the time he was suspected of embezzling €170 million from the International Bank of Azerbaijan, he was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped.
In March 2017, Sahan ended his cooperation with Bashirov, and later, according to him, he noticed inconsistencies in the documents of another local partner, MCG. He also claims that in April 2021 Thales fired him and then accused him of embezzling €4 million out of the €6.3 million allocated to the Baku office’s operations over the previous seven years.
Sahan says that in February 2022 he was arrested at Thales’ request, and that the court of first instance, in his version, did so on the personal order of Judge Ilgar Gulyjov of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan. Later he said that he found financial ties between Thales and this judge through the Luxembourg company Industrial Technical Solutions (ITS), among whose shareholders, he claims, were Sayad and Aziza Gulyjov.
Sahan insists that if he had really stolen the amount attributed to him, the Baku office would not have been able to operate. He also claims that he underwent an annual audit and an on-site inspection once every three years, and that his authority was extended every two to three years.
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