UK’s first unexplained Wealth Order as £1m diamond ring was seized
Zamira Hajiyeva, married to Jahangir Hajiyev, a banker, who is serving a 15-year sentence in their native Azerbaijan for stealing millions from his state-controller bank, managed to spend £16m in Harrods, by using 54 credit cards many of which were linked to her husband’s bank is currently fighting the UK’s first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).
Mrs Hajiyeva risks losing her £15m home near Harrods plus a Berkshire golf course worth millions more on top if she fails to explain the source of her wealth to the High Court.
The papers in the battle against the National Crime Agency, now seen for the first time, reveal Mrs Hajiyeva’s spending and complicated off-shore property arrangements.
Her spending spree began shortly after she south to settle in the UK – having been kidnapped in Azerbaijan the year before. She began modestly spending £842 on children’s books and £140 on perfume. She had also spent £181 on October with Cartier jewellery, £1, 600 of Miu Miu designer clothes and a further £1539 on Ferragamo shoes.
In March 2008, she spent £10, 616 on one of her 25 American Express cards. Then there was an unspecified payment to Harrods of more than £66, 000 and more than £17, 000 for goods from the designer Tom Dixon. Then she spent £.3,5m on Boucheron jewellery, Cartier jewellery £.14m, Dennis Basso, US fashion designer £402, 000, Sandwich by Tom for high-end designer furniture £332, 000, the Harrods perfume counters £160, 000 with total spending of £16, 309, 077.87 according to High Court papers and a 93-page statement from the store’s loyalty card scheme, one of the key documents in the case.
Nicola Bartlett, an NCA financial investigator, in a statement to the court, said Mrs Hajiyeva’s spending was significant in the light of the allegations that Mr Hajiyev abused his position at the International Bank of Azerbaijan by issuing credit cards to relatives which would ultimately never be repaid.
Just after midday on 20 June 2008 she paid £925 at the underwear and sock counter. One hour and three minutes later the Cartier jewellery till received payment for £433, 389.79. Days later she spend £8, 387 on Israeli designer Eli Tahar and £847 on perfume and spend £17, 000 in three purchases at luxury watches counter. She also made a curious payment of £99, 000 which went through the till at “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” Disney’s then exclusive boutique in the store. And a £1000 an hour for a prince or princess children’s make-over and another £160, 000 on Boucheron jewellery. The mother of three also spent £250, 000 in the Harrods toy department. In all spend £16, 309, 077,87 in Harrods between 29 September 2006 and 14 June 2016, and almost £5m directly linked back to 35 credit cards issued by the bank her husband is accused of ripping off.
The permanent UK resident lives adjacent to Harrods not only owns a local shop, but also two bays in its private car park.
She stands to lose both her London home and Mill Ride Golf Club in Berkshire, owned by a British company with the same initials MRGC LTD, which in turn is owned by Natura Ltd, which was incorporated in Guernsey if she cannot prove how she became so wealthy. In August 2016, Mrs Hajiyeva was declared in official papers as the person with significant control of MRGC Ltd, which lasted one day and was her name was subsequently removed. Mrs Hajiyeva’s Knightsbridge home was bought in December 2009 by a company called Vicksburg Global Inc for £11.5m, and the NCA linked this British Virgin Islands company to Mrs Hajiyeva. Its director is a man from Azerbaijan called Elmar Baghirzade, who is also director of a company registered in the UK called Berkeley Business Ltd, which bought a Gulfstream business jet for more than £33m ( $42m). British companies must declare who has “significant control” meaning the person with more than a quarter of the voting shares and that person was Mrs Hajiyeva’s husband, Jahangir. The NCA also linked Vicksburg in the British Virgin Island to the couple through Mrs Hajiyeva’s own visa application. She told Home Office that she was the beneficiary of the company that owns her home.
The NCA said in its court submissions, “ the manner in which the property has been obtained and subsequently handled is highly unusual, secretive and complex and, absent further and credible explanation, is indicative of money laundering. There is a reason to believe that the subsequent cancellation of per Person with Significant Control interest was an attempt to conceal her association with the property”.
A further BVI company linked to Mr Hajiyev once owned the home next door to the property targeted by the Unexplained Wealth Order and it’s also believed by investigators that he owns a villa in Sardinia and property in Azerbaijan.
District Judge Michael Snow said, “There’s a clear evidential link between the ring and Mr Hajiyev and he has been convicted of substantial fraud.” This satisfies me that there are grounds to suspect that this is recoverable property”. Last November, the NCA seized £400, 000 of jewellery from the world-famous Christies auction house, which had been put up for auction by Mrs Hajiyeva’s daughter.