Jailed Banker’s Wife Turns Over £14 Million UK House and Golf Club
The National Crime Agency has seized a house and a golf club from the wife of an Azerbaijani banker who was imprisoned for fraud.
The wife of a banker who was convicted in Azerbaijan for fraud and embezzlement has agreed to hand over a £14 million house in London and a golf club to the National Crime Agency.
Zamira Hajiyeva, known for spending £16 million at Harrods over a decade, has relinquished the house in Knightsbridge and the golf club in Ascot following a civil recovery investigation by the NCA.
Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, once the chairman of the state-controlled International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) from 2001 to 2015, is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital.
In June 2023, the NCA filed a civil recovery claim at the High Court in London.
On August 1, a High Court judge granted a civil recovery order resulting in the forfeiture of 70% of the value of both properties.
Wife Was First To Be Served
Hajiyeva was the first person subjected to an unexplained wealth order (UWO) in 2019.
UWOs were established in January 2018 under the so-called McMafia laws, named after the BBC drama and the book by journalist Misha Glenny that inspired it.
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The NCA, who conducted a comprehensive investigation into the Hajiyev family over six years, stated that they believed the house and golf club were acquired through substantial fraud, embezzlement, false accounting, and money laundering.
Hajiyev was found guilty in Azerbaijan in 2016 of misappropriation, abuse of authority, fraud, and embezzlement relating to his time at the IBA.
Three years later, he was convicted of additional embezzlement from an IBA subsidiary bank in Moscow.
Tim Quarrelle, the NCA’s asset denial branch commander, commented: “NCA officers meticulously tracked the intricate movement of these funds across the global banking system, via shell companies in various jurisdictions, to determine their origin.”
“This outcome comes nearly six and a half years after we served Mrs. Hajiyeva with the initial unexplained wealth order ever granted, emphasizing our dedication to utilizing all available tools to combat the flow of illicit funds into and through the UK,” he continued.
In an email press release, the NCA disclosed that their investigators had identified several instances of funds traced back to the IBA being moved through multiple accounts resembling typical money laundering practices.
These transactions were performed by a close associate of Hajiyev on his behalf.
Substantial sums were transferred between accounts in the British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Panama, Cyprus, and Luxembourg, with the money ultimately used to purchase assets for the family.
The NCA stated that Hajiyev and his wife could not provide a reasonable explanation for the source of the funds used to acquire either property.
Golf Club Purchased via Offshore Trusts
The acquisition of Mill Ride golf club in Ascot was carried out through a sophisticated structure involving companies registered in Luxembourg and Guernsey, and by utilizing offshore trusts in Guernsey and later Cyprus.
The NCA revealed that the majority of the funds used to buy the Knightsbridge house originated from two IBA accounts.
The money was channeled to the UK through various bank accounts in Cyprus, Estonia, and Switzerland.
An associate of Hajiyev, via a British Virgin Islands corporation, facilitated the purchase of the house before transferring the property to an offshore trust also established in the British Virgin Islands, according to the NCA.
In 2013, then-Prime Minister David Cameron urged British Overseas Territories and crown dependencies, including the British Virgin Islands, to address tax evasion and money laundering issues.
One provision required the foreign secretary to prepare, by Dec. 31, 2020, a draft order in council mandating British Overseas Territories without a publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership of companies within their jurisdiction to establish one.
The extent to which the 10 overseas territories complied with this requirement remains unclear.
PA Media contributed to this report.
