Billionaires’ mansions seized by Mcmafia law
Tell-all memoir about Kazakh dictator used by officers to target properties over unexplained wealth
Three London properties were seized using so-called Mcmafia laws over suspected links to Rakhat Aliyev, a late Kazakh dissident once married to the daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president. The National Crime Agency alleges members of his family may have been involved in laundering money through the £80million property portfolio. The multi-millionpound mansion where his son Nurali Aliyev lived is in Hampstead’s Billionaires’ Row.
A BOOK written by the son-in-law of a Kazakh dictator linked to the Duke of York has been used by police as part of an investigation into allegations that a London mansion was bought with the proceeds of crime.
Three London properties were seized using so-called Mcmafia laws over suspected links to Rakhat Aliyev, a late Kazakh dissident once married to the daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) alleges members of his family, including his son, Nurali Aliyev, may have been involved in laundering money through the £80million property portfolio. The mansion where Nurali lived with his family is among the properties targeted with an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).
As a challenge against the three UWOS came before the High Court yesterday, it emerged the NCA had delved into a tell-all memoir by Rakhat Aliyev to help build its case. The politician turned dissident, who died while awaiting trial for murder in 2015, claimed he was lifting the lid on corruption and criminality in his father-in-law’s regime in The Godfather-in-law.
In the book, he described acquiring and developing businesses with his former wife Dariga Nazarbayeva, the owner of the other two properties seized by the NCA.
Dr Nazarbayeva, the current chairman of the senate in Kazakhstan, claims to be independently wealthy in part through ventures in the sugar industry, but the book claimed: “The sugar industry certainly doesn’t generate enough profit to earn us a place in the Forbes list.”
The Godfather-in-law had separately made headlines in 2009 over its unsubstantiated claim that Mr Nazarbayev tried to persuade the Duke of York to lobby for him by paying over the odds for his former home.
The Duke faced scrutiny over the 2007 sale of Sunningdale Park to Timur Kulibayev, another son-in-law of Mr Nazarbayev, for £15 million – £3 million over the asking price.
At the time, the Duke was on close terms with Goga Ashkenazi, a Russianborn socialite and businesswoman who had an affair with Mr Kulibayev.
The Unexplained Wealth Order powers were brought into force in 2018 under “Mcmafia” legislation, named after the BBC organised crime drama and the book which inspired it.
The 10-bedroom mansion of which Nurali Aliyev is the “ultimate beneficial owner” is an area of Hampstead known as Billionaires’ Row and boasts an underground swimming pool and cin£31million. ema. British authorities believe the company that legally owns the property would not have enough “lawfully obtained income” to buy it, according to legal documents.
The Duke always strenuously denied any suggestion there was a side deal on the sale of Sunningdale Park, which had laid empty for five years, while Buckingham Palace said he had no involvement in the process.
However, his relationship with Kazakhstan again caused controversy in 2016, when he was accused of trying to broker an £885 million deal from which he stood to earn a commission of nearly £4 million. The Palace denied the Duke had ever helped private organisations to pursue business in the country.
Yesterday, the controversial book was cited as one of several pieces of material that had raised suspicions about the three London properties, which also include a mansion near Highgate Golf Club and a Chelsea apartment believed to be worth In written arguments prepared for the High Court, an NCA investigator was quoted as saying: “There are grounds to suspect that (Rakhat Aliyev) enriched himself through the corrupt use of his public position. “There are grounds to suspect that his apparent wealth was not obtained legitimately and therefore must have been obtained from corruption or other unlawful conduct such as blackmail and conspiracy to defraud. “Open source documents and apparent admissions by (Rakhat Aliyev) demonstrate that he was part of a corrupt inner circle in the Kazakh regime who enriched himself at public expense.” Clare Montgomery QC, representing the two companies which own the Chelsea and Highgate homes, said they were “not associated with Rakhat Aliyev at all, but with his wife, Dariga Nazarbayeva, who has had an entirely independent life as an economically active woman”.
She added that the NCA’S links between the properties and Rakhat Aliyev was “tissue-thin”.
Nurali Aliyev, meanwhile, claims to have had no contact with his father following the divorce from his mother in 2007 and told the NCA the mansion was bought from the proceeds of a sale of interests in a media company.
The NCA said it had reason to suspect the property had been “obtained and handled in a complex and secretive manner” and no sources of income could be found for the foundation which owned it.
In a statement, a lawyer for Nurali Aliyev said: “Nurali Aliyev has sought to assist the NCA by providing them with relevant information in relation to this case. He is now challenging the NCA’S approach and will robustly defend the proceedings.”
A statement from the office of Dr Nazarbayeva said: “Dr Nazarbayeva wishes to make it clear that she has not been party to any wrongdoing and looks forward to the matter being concluded swiftly.”
An application for all three UWOS to be discharged will finish being heard by Mrs Justice Lang today.
‘There are grounds to suspect that [Rakhat Aliyev] enriched himself through the corrupt use of his public position’
‘The sugar industry certainly doesn’t generate enough profit to earn us a place in the Forbes list’