File: Telman Ismailov (born 26 October 1956) is a Russian entrepreneur and businessman of Azerbaijani Mountain Jew descent. He is chairman of the Russian AST Group of companies, which is active in many countries.
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Telman Ismailov was born in Baku, USSR in 1956, to a family of a well-known and wealthy Baku businessman, Mardan Ismailov. He is the 10th child of a family with 12 children. Both his father and mother have Jewish backgrounds.
In 1989, he registered the brand "AST" (initials of his two sons (Alik, Sarhan) and himself). After lavish opening of the hotel in Antalya Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin is said to be furious that Ismailov has invested so much abroad and flaunted his riches when Russia has been hard hit by the credit crunch. Russia's prosecutors are currently investigating charges against Cherkizovsky market owned by Ismailov's AST group.
Ismailov is the most controversial and extravagant mogul famous for having spent millions of dollars on singers like Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Tom Jones, and others. Ismailov paid Lopez $1.4 million dollars for her to sing 10 minutes worth of songs. The video of her singing "Happy Birthday" song for him is available on Youtube.com. Ismailov befriended plenty of other celebrities such as actresses like Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, Monica Belucci, Paris Hilton and numerous other performers just to appear at his lavish parties.