The National Crime Agency has finally begun a High Court bid to seize the £15 million Knightsbridge home of a jailed banker’s wife targeted under “McMafia” powers after splashing out vast sums of allegedly “dirty money” at Harrods.
Zamira Hajiyeva became in 2018 the first person in Britain to be given an “unexplained wealth order” under legislation introduced to tackle illicit funds flowing into this country.
Law enforcers claimed that her home on Walton Street in Knightsbridge and the Mill Ride golf course in Berkshire, worth around £11 million, had been both been acquired using a fortune stolen by her husband Jahangir Hajiyev from the bank where he worked in Azerbaijan.
The case against her also revealed how she had spent £16 million in Harrods on jewellery, shoes, designer clothes and other luxury items in a spending spree which the NCA alleged was similarly funded by dirty money.
She has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that her husband’s wealth was legitimately obtained, and the litigation has been bogged down by delays ever since.
An ongoing court battle over some of Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewels and whether her husband, who is in prison in Baku for plundering his bank, can take part in the proceedings has highlighted the challenges faced by the NCA in trying to recover wealth from her.
But more than five years after legal action against her first started, the NCA has now finally submitted formal applications to the High Court to seize her Walton Street home and the golf course using a process known as civil recovery.
The litigation is expected to take time to complete but the agency confirmed its intention to seize the properties in a statement.
“The NCA has begun civil proceedings against properties belonging to Mrs Hajiyeva following consideration of her responses to the Unexplained Wealth Orders and further investigative action,” it said.
The move against Mrs Hajiyeva’s properties comes as separate court action continues in which the NCA are seeking to take ownership of around £3m of her jewels.
At the latest hearing in that case earlier this year, a judge was told Mrs Hajiyeva’s jailed husband Jahangir wants to participate in the proceedings so that he can tell the story of what he claims is wrongful conviction in court.
The case has been bogged down in wrangling over whether Mr Hajiyev, who is classed as an interested party in the case on the grounds that his money was used to buy at least some of the jewels, has been served with notice of the legal action and whether he wants or is able to participate.
The National Crime Agency told an earlier court hearing that it believed Mr Hajiyev was deliberately refusing to accept court documents taken to him by Azeri officials on their behalf and cited testimony claiming that the jailed banker had stated to one of the officials that he “was not going to make it easy for any law enforcement to deprive them [Mr Hajiyev and his wife] of their property”
But at the latest hearing, Mrs Hajiyeva’s barrister Ben Watson KC rejected those claims and insisted that Mr Hajiyev wanted to take part so that he could set out why he had been wrongly convicted after what his lawyers have previously described as an unfair trial.
“He wants to tell his story in an English court,” Mr Watson told the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
A note submitted to court by Mr Watson and his colleague James Lewis KC on behalf of Mrs Hajiyeva quotes a “close family friend” who has visited Mr Hajiyev in his Baku prison saying that “Jahangir has consistently indicated that he wishes to instruct UK lawyers” and “has told me plainly that he wishes to exercise that right in order to participate in the present UK proceedings.”
It adds that Mr Hajiyev does not trust the Azeri authorities or Azeri lawyers to assist him and that he is being “deliberately obstructed from instructing English lawyers”.
The note adds that in these circumstances it would be “wrong and unfair” to press ahead with the forfeiture action over his wife’s jewels and that Mrs Hajiyeva will be arguing that the National Crime Agency’s case should be dismissed if the situation remains the same when the next hearing in the case takes place.
The latest developments come after Mrs Hajiyeva became the first person in Britain to be given an “unexplained wealth order” – dubbed “McMafia powers after the hit BBC TV series starring James Norton – in court action by the National Crime Agency in 2018.
Court hearings were told that she had bought an £11.5 million home on Walton Street in Knightsbridge, now valued at least £15 million, and the multi-million pound Mill Ride golf course in Berkshire using her husband’s wealth and had also splashed out £16 million at Harrods in an extravagant spending spree.
No assets have yet been recovered from her, however, despite the litigation against her now entering a sixth year.
The NCA’s forfeiture action over her jewellery was originally aimed at 51 pieces acquired by Mrs Hajiyeva.
All except a £1.3 million Cartier ring, which was at the jeweller’s Bond Street store, were seized from Christie’s auction house where they had been taken by her daughter for valuation. They included a Boucheron sapphire and ruby necklace worth up to £120,000.
Law enforcers have since agreed to remove two swan rings from the list of jewels being targeted, but continue to seek forfeiture of the remainder.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring, who has predicted a further “maze” of legal argument, adjourned proceedings until a hearing later this year.
