‘McMafia’ wife who spent £16m at Harrods wants funds unfrozen
A FRAUDSTER’S wife who spent £16million at Harrods has claimed that an order to freeze her funds is a ‘flagrant denial of justice’.
Zamira Hajiyeva, 56, is trying to overturn the UK’s first ‘McMafia order’, which allows the National Crime Agency to seize assets if it believes the owner is corrupt.
Her husband Jahangir, the former chairman of the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and embezzlement.
In September it emerged she was issued with three loyalty cards by the store in Knightsbridge, central London, where she blew £16million in ten years, including £600,000 in a day.
Documents have also revealed she spent £4million at jewellers Boucheron, as well as another £1million on toys, £1.75million at Cartier and £30,000 at gourmet Belgian chocolate chain Godiva.
Yesterday she was not present at the Court of Appeal in London as her lawyers attempted to overturn the ‘unexplained wealth order’ – dubbed a ‘McMafia order’ after a BBC organised crime drama. It stops her selling a property in Knightsbridge, bought for £11.5million by a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Her lawyers said her husband’s trial was ‘grossly unfair’ and the focus on his conviction was a ‘flagrant denial of justice’. The orders can be used against ‘politically exposed persons’ – those who are from outside the European Economic Area and in a position of power that makes them susceptible to bribery or corruption.
James Lewis QC, for Mrs Hajiyeva, argued that the way they were being used could lead to ‘absurd consequences’ such as reputable British firms and their directors falling under suspicion.
‘So, the directors and managers of Sainsbury’s would be politically exposed persons because Qatar owns a substantial portion of Sainsbury’s share capital,’ a written argument read. The National
‘£30k on gourmet Belgian chocolates’
Crime Agency’s definition of stateowned enterprise is so wide it would catch nearly every company under the FTSE 100 as they all have some shares held by nonEAA sovereign wealth funds.
‘Therefore, under its definition all the directors and management of those companies are politically exposed persons and no suspicion of crime is needed to serve them with an order. That, it is submitted, is an absurd consequence.’
But Jonathan Hall QC, for the National Crime Agency, said Mrs Hajiyeva’s interpretation of the law was ‘unsustainable’. He added: ‘There is a strong domestic and international public interest in investigating, deterring and preventing serious crime – including money laundering and corruption – and recovering the fruits of such crime.’
Mrs Hajiyeva’s first attempt to overturn the order was dismissed by the High Court in October.
At the time Mr Justice Supperstone revealed that she had been issued with the Harrods loyalty cards and gone on the decade-long spending spree between September 2006 and June 2016.
In September this year, she fought off an attempt to extradite her to Azerbaijan to face fraud and embezzlement charges by arguing that she would not receive a fair trial.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett – sitting with Lord Justice Davis and Lord Justice Simon – are expected to reserve judgment in Mrs Hajiyeva’s appeal.