Banker’s wife who spent £16m in Harrods launches legal bid to overturn wealth order
THE wife of a “fat cat international banker” is seeking to overturn the UK’s first unexplained wealth order (UWO) at the Court of Appeal, arguing it was based on her husband’s conviction after a “grossly unfair trial” in Azerbaijan.
Zamira Hajiyeva — who spent more than £16m at Harrods in a decade — is attempting to overturn a UWO obtained by the National Crime Agency (NCA) against a property in Knightsbridge, London, which was purchased for £11.5m in 2009 by a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, was the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan from 2001 until his resignation in 2015, and was later sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for fraud and embezzlement.
But Mrs Hajiyeva (56) argues that her husband’s conviction — which she says was “the central feature” of the NCA’s application for the UWO — was a “flagrant denial of justice”.
Her barrister, James Lewis QC, told judges in London yesterday that Mr Hajiyev’s trial was “nothing of the sort”, and that his lawyers had not been permitted to cross-examine key witnesses or call any witnesses of their own.
He submitted that “shorn of Mr Hajiyev’s conviction, it is wholly unrealistic to suggest that the NCA could have sought and obtained the UWO”.
Mrs Hajiyeva was the first person to be made subject to a UWO. A UWO allows the NCA to seize someone’s assets if they believe the owner is a politically exposed person (PEP) — someone from outside the European Economic Area in a position of power that makes them liable to bribery or corruption — and they are unable to explain the source of their wealth.
But Mr Lewis argued that Mr Hajiyev was not a PEP because the law which introduced UWOs required him to have been “entrusted with prominent public functions by an international organisation or by a state”.
He added that the NCA had “seriously mischaracterised” Mr Hajiyev’s job by describing him as a “government official”, arguing that the International Bank of Azerbaijan was not a “stateowned enterprise”.
In written submissions, Jonathan Hall QC, for the NCA, said Mrs Hajiyeva’s interpretation of the law was “unsustainable”, submitting that the International Bank of Azerbaijan was a stateowned enterprise and that Mr Hajiyev was a PEP.
Mr Hall added that UWOs “enable enforcement authorities to pursue matters of substantial public interest”.
In a High Court ruling in October, dismissing Mrs Hajiyeva’s attempt to overturn the UWO,
Mr Justice Supperstone said that “three separate loyalty cards were issued to Mrs Hajiyeva” by Harrods, where she spent more than £16m between September 2006 and June 2016.
Court documents later released to the media revealed that Mrs Hajiyeva blew £600,000 in a single day.
The NCA subsequently seized jewellery which was worth more than £400,000 from auction house Christie’s over suspicions about how the items were purchased while it was valuing the jewellery for Mrs Hajiyeva’s daughter.
In September, Mrs Hajiyeva fought off an attempt to extradite her to Azerbaijan to face fraud and embezzlement charges on the grounds that she would not get a fair trial.
Judgment in the case is expected to be reserved.