Full details of the lavish multi-million pound jewellery of a Harrods big spender targeted under “McMafia” laws have been revealed as law enforcers described her extravagant purchases as “luxury items” bought with the alleged proceeds of crime.
Zamira Hajiyeva acquired the jewels during a spending spree in the capital that saw her splash out £16 million at Harrods using money that the National Crime Agency claims was plundered by her husband from the bank in Azerbaijan where he worked.
She is fighting the agency’s efforts to force her to forfeit the jewellery in complex legal proceedings involving references to other cases including that of Shamima Begum, the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl turned Islamic State bride, and another featuring Amal Clooney, the barrister wife of the US film star George Clooney.
The NCA has hit back by insisting that there is no legal justification for Mrs Hajiyeva to retain the 49 piece jewellery collection, which it has described in court as full of “luxury items not necessary to maintain a basic standard of living”.
It has also warned that if she succeeds in thwarting forfeiture, using the argument that her husband is jailed in Baku for the bank fraud and unable to participate in the proceedings, it will create a precedent that will make it easy for other foreign tycoons to escape efforts to seize their ill-gotten gains.
The fate of the jewellery has yet to be determined as a result.
But full details and images of each of the items acquired by Mrs Hajiyeva - who in 2018 became the first person to be targeted with an Unexplained Wealth Order under “McMafia” legislation targeting dirty money – have now been revealed for the first time after a court document listing the jewels was obtained by the Evening Standard.
The items include a “Boucheron sapphire and ruby serpent pendant “danger necklace” bought for a VAT exempt price of £863,478 and a Van Cleef and Arpels “cultured pearl necklace with diamond clasp” bought in 2008 in Swiss francs for the equivalent at the time of £310,431.
Other jewellery includes a “Boucheron emerald cabochon anddiamond ring” that was bought for £125,000 free of VAT, a pair of Tiffany and Co “yellow diamond earrings” costing £52,000 and a Cartier “onyx bead and diamond bracelet” valued at £49,200 in 2010.
A Boucheron “sapphire and diamond Sheherazade ring” that cost a VAT exempt £13,404 and a £27,591 Boucheron “sapphire and emerald ring” are also being targeted for forfeiture.
The most expensive item in the collection that Mrs Hajiyeva is trying to retain is a “platinum solitaire diamond ring” that the court document shows was bought by “Hajiyev” in July 2011 at Harrods for £992,200 before being “re-purchased by Hajiyev on 2 November 2011 in Harrods, London, following a refund” for the higher price of £1,190,64.
The purchase price of many other of Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewels is listed as unknown. These items include a “Chopard yellow gold happy diamond pendant”, a “diamond cluster ring”, a “diamond bracelet”, a “Carrera Y Carrera diamond sunburst pendant and earrings”, and “Leo Pizzo sapphire and diamond flower earrings and pendant”.
Further items with an unspecified price are a “Sabbadini sapphire and emerald diamond ring”. a “Cartier black diamond and emerald Panthere brooch, a “Cartier diamond Panthere pendant” and a “Lydia Courteille Paraiba tourmaline ring”.
The list of jewellery was obtained by this newspaper at a hearing at the City of London magistrates’ court at which the NCA’s barrister, Catherine Callaghan KC, accused Mrs Hajiyeva of using arguments that amounted to “a sideshow and irrelevance” to distract attention from the “lack of merit” of her application to stop the forfeiture of her jewellery.
Ms Callaghan told the court that rather than being unable to participate, Mrs Hajiyeva’s husband Jahangir Hajiyev had deliberately chosen not to by refusing to communicate via his wife to make his case or to take one of a number of options to instruct a solicitor.
She added that the “strong public interest in recovering property which represents the proceeds of crime” meant that Mrs Hajiyeva’s attempt to prevent forfeiture should be rejected and that Mr Hajiyev had only a “relatively weak private interest” in retaining “items of jewellery which he allegedly jointly owns with his wife and which on any view are luxury items and not necessary for maintaining a basic standard of living.”
Ms Callaghan added: “It is not impossible for Mr Hajiyev or Mrs Hajiyeva to have a fair hearing as affected persons in these proceedings.”
“If Mrs Hajiyeva’s argument is accepted it would mean any civil recovery or summary forfeiture proceedings brought by the NCA could be defeated by an affected person’s refusal to take reasonable steps available to them to participate … and/or by the actions of a foreign state. It would amount to any easy means for affected persons to frustrate proceedings.”
Ms Callaghan went on: “Mrs Hajiyeva has given evidence that she had telephone contact with Mr Hajiyev until March 2021 when he decided (of his own volition) to stop speaking to her, but that he communicates with his sons twice a week.
“The obvious route of communication would be through his wife, but Mr Hajiyev has apparently made a choice not to speak to her.”
Ben Watson KC, for Mrs Hajiyeva, insisted, however that legal principles set out in the Shamina Begum case and others showed that “fairness trumps the public interest” when deciding whether proceedings could continue.
He said it was clear that the Azerbaijani authorities were “unlawfully impeding” Mr Hajiyev from gaining access to an English lawyer and acting “in defiance of their international treaty obligations”.
Mr Watson suggested that the reason was that Mr Hajiyev’s was a “politically sensitive” case involving allegations by the former banker of human rights abuses against him by the Azeri authorities and an unfair trial leading to his conviction.
He said that as result the only option open was to halt the proceedings to forfeit Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewels.
“If it cannot be fairly determined it cannot proceed,” he said in reference to the National Crime Agency’s application for the forfeiture of Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewellery.
“It is not unusual for fairness to trump the public interest [whether it be] prosecutions of murderers, terrorists and others”
The hearing was adjourned and a ruling on Mrs Hajiyeva’s attempt to halt the forfeiture of her jewellery will be made later.
Unexplained Wealth Orders were introduced to target dirty money in this country under legislation later dubbed a “McMafia” law in the wake of the hit BBC series “McMafia” starring James Norton. It depicted corrupt Russian oligarchs living in London.
Mrs Hajiyeva’s £15 million home on Walton Street in Knightsbridge is also being targeted by the NCA in separate legal proceedings. She denies any wrongdoing.
