Battle to seize £80m ‘McMaf ia’ mansions
Homes were bought with dirty money, court is told
THREE London mansions together worth £80million were yesterday at the centre of a landmark court battle under ‘McMafia laws’.
The National Crime Agency suspects the properties were bought using corrupt cash from Kazakhstan.
Its investigators have obtained unexplained wealth orders over the homes, one of which is on Bishop’s Avenue – the ‘Billionaires’ Row’ of Hampstead.
With an underground swimming pool and a cinema room, it is worth around £39million and belonged to Rakhat Aliyev, a former Kazakh politician.
It is now home to his son Nurali, his wife Aida and their four children, although it is owned by a private foundation registered in Curacao in the Caribbean.
The wealth orders mean the properties cannot be sold or transferred until the end of the investigation, and could be confiscated if their owners cannot explain the source of their wealth. The orders are part of McMafia laws, named after the BBC1 hit drama about organised crime and introduced to halt the estimated £90billion flow of corrupt money into Britain.
Aliyev, who was son-in-law to former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was found hanged in a prison cell in Austria in 2015 while awaiting trial on two murder charges. Documents filed at the High Court as part of the case show that NCA officers suspect that other members of his family, including his son, were also involved in money laundering.
Nurali has denied the claim and his lawyers said he would ‘robustly defend’ himself. The High Court is hearing an appeal against the unexplained wealth orders, brought by lawyers for the foundation and a private company that own the properties.
These are the Hampstead gated home, a £9million mansion in nearby Highgate and a massive £32million apartment in Chelsea.
The lawyers are seeking to halt the NCA investigation and overturn the orders.
Clare Montgomery QC, representing the legal owners of the properties, said the agency’s case was ‘tissue-thin’.
She said the properties were not linked to Rakhat Aliyev but to his former wife Dariga Nazarbayeva, 56, who was financially independent as a businesswoman and politician.
She is chairman of Kazakhstan’s senate and has denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the family had asked the court to rule the location of the Hampstead mansion should be kept secret because of security and privacy concerns, heightened by a ‘horrific burglary’ last month.
They said Nurali and his wife were a private family who tried to stay out of the spotlight.
But representatives from the media told the court that he was a public figure in Kazakhstan and promoted himself on social media as a businessman, including posing for a photograph with boxer Mike Tyson.
The 35-year-old became president of Kazakhstan’s leading sugar producer when he was just 19 and was later appointed head of one of the country’s largest banks and deputy mayor of Astana, the capital.
Speaking outside court, Daniel Bruce of the campaign group Transparency International said the case sent a signal that UK property was no longer a safe haven for corrupt money.
He added: ‘Unexplained wealth orders are making a real difference in building Britain’s reputation as a safe and clean place to do business.’
The case continues.
‘Staying out of the spotlight’