IPN: Documents Link Fugitive Oligarch Shor to Gulfstream G450 Used by Kyrgyz President Japarov
Why It MattersThe case shows how opaque lease-purchase structures and offshore brokerage registrations can route business jets to politically exposed users, increasing scrutiny on intermediaries, registries and operators in aircraft transactions.
IPN journalists report, citing internal documents of the "Shor group", that fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor provided Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov with a Gulfstream G450 business jet through a network of intermediaries. The documents indicate the arrangement was disguised as a lease-purchase contract involving Turkish intermediaries.
On December 19, 2024, Radion Munteanu of Hancesti signed a contract with Turkish businessman Zafer Halidi, under which Munteanu lends Halidi $17.9 million to buy a Gulfstream G450 built 13 years earlier (s/n 4287). The documents stipulate that the aircraft must be purchased, maintained and transferred to the ownership of a company designated by Munteanu. In March 2025 the aircraft appeared in Bishkek in the livery of Mangrove Jet Solutions, whose domain is registered by the Dubai firm Aquila Sky Aviation Trading Brokerage, which IPN links to the Russian airline North-West. The aircraft later came under the management of Zafer Air, Halidi's company, and, according to IPN, has since been used by Japarov for both official and private trips. On September 23, the jet, registered TC-KRG (formerly T7-ELIF), flew the route Bishkek – Budapest – Riga – Bodrum – Bishkek.
IPN also reports that Shor holds part of his crypto assets in Kyrgyzstan and has launched joint crypto projects with Kyrgyz banks; media have previously written that these projects aim to circumvent Western sanctions in Russia's favor. A second contract concluded in 2024 covers a new Gulfstream G650 valued at $21.8 million, for which IPN found no public data. Unofficial information suggests the G650 might be used by private companies to rent to Russian oligarchs. Halidi's partner in that deal was Victor Gutuleac, a former Moldovan law-enforcement employee who, according to RISE Moldova, acted as Shor's "courier" in Moscow, handling cash operations, logistics and offshore financial schemes, and signed multimillion-dollar agreements with Shor's foreign partners.
