Living Lavishly Illegally
"The NCA's [National Crime Agency] inquiries have not identified evidence which otherwise suggests [that Hajiyev] has been a successful businesswoman or entrepreneur in her own right or that she has received significant income from other sources."
NCA court document
"[Zamira Hajiyeva described her husband as] a man of substantial means."
"He was very well-off when we married in 1997 and had accumulated capital and wealth since the early 1990s. As to the purchase of the property, this was my husband's responsibility."
"I had no knowledge of any of the payments made to purchase the property, our family home, their source or any other details."
Hajiyeva witness statement
"The decision of the High Court upholding the grant of an Unexplained Wealth Order against Zamira Hajiyeva does not and should not be taken to imply any wrongdoing, whether on her part of that of her husband."
"The NCA's case is that the UWO [Unexplained Wealth Orders] is part of an investigative process, not a criminal procedure, and it does not involve the finding of any criminal offence."
Legal defence
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| Zamira Hajiyeva has been named as the woman behind the lavish Harrods spending sprees |
Originally from Azerbaijan, Zamira Hajiyeva is wife to Jahangir Hajiyev, formerly chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, who was sentenced in his home country to 15 years in prison on a conviction of fraud and embezzlement. He was charged with defrauding the bank of $3.8 billion. Although the former chairman denied the charges and lawyers for his wife characterized the case as unjust, she too now finds herself charged with fraud.
And she has come under scrutiny because Britain is uncomfortable with the reputation it has accrued as a good place to invest the proceeds of criminal activity on the part of non-Brits looking for a secure place to park their ill-gotten gains. Britain introduced a new law titled Unexplained Wealth Orders in an effort to curb the status London has acquired as a haven for ill-gotten gains. Orders permit authorities the seizure of assets over $86,000 from those suspected of corruption or links to organized crime.
The seized assets would be released to their former owner only when they proved able to account for the manner in which their assets were acquired. It is believed by investigators from the National Crime Agency that billions of pounds of dirty money has been invested in British property, yet without actual evidence charges against owners suspected of criminal activities or the seizure of their assets is almost impossible.
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Despite which, using the new Unexplained Wealth Orders as an effort to force owners to disclose the source of their wealth, has now been initiated in a civil case against 55-year-old Zamiera Hajiyeva. The court case against her husband and her lavish spending on luxury goods alerted Britain's National Crime Agency to begin their investigation. In previous court hearings she was identified as Mrs. A, until a court order granting her anonymity was lifted last week.
Earlier, during a court hearing while her identity was not yet divulged, a lawyer representing the NCA detailed her spending at Harrods with the use of 35 credit cards issued by her husband's bank in Azerbaijan. In a decade, 2006 to 2016, she spent over 16 million pounds on wine and spirits in a single day. That kind of splurge was interpreted by the crime agency as a signal this represented Ill-gotten funds. There was also a $20-million London home located nearby Harrods, and a golf course outside the city valued at $18-million.
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Mrs. Hajiyeva spent $258,000 one day on Boucheron luxury goods, and another time $172,000 on Cartier products. As well, a $53,000 Gulfstream G550 jet became the couple's property through her auspices as a big spender as the unemployed wife of a banker whose income was pegged at US$70,650, back in 2008. He must have made some astonishingly good investments with his modest salary. Her five bedroom home in Knightsbridge along with the Mill Rid Golf Club near Ascot have earned her an Unexplained Wealth Order investigation.
On her part, Mrs. Hajiyeva is engaged in efforts to overturn the order so she can retain her properties, all acquired fairly and with due process to law. Her lawyers describe her husband as a highly respected businessman whose wealth had been acquired through sound financial investments. Life can be so unfair when hard-earned wealth and a propensity to spend casual change is envied by others too conventional to imagine how to make sound financial investments.
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| Mill Ride golf and country club in Ascot. Photograph: Mill Ride golf club |
Labels: Britain, Fraud, Investment
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 17, 2018
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