McMafia wife bids to overturn 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 that it was based on her husband’s conviction after a “grossly unfair trial” in Azerbaijan.
Zamira Hajiyeva – who spent more than £16 million at Harrods in a decade – is attempting to overturn a UWO obtained by the National Crime Agency (NCA) against a property in Knightsbridge, central London, which was purchased for £11.5 million in 2009 by a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, was the chairman of the state-controlled 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 was a “flagrant denial of justice”.
Her barrister, James Lewis QC, told senior judges in London yesterday that Mr Hajiyev’s lawyers had not been permitted to cross-examine key witnesses or call any 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 the new power brought into force last January under “McMafia laws” – named after the BBC crime drama and the book which inspired it.
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 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 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 “state-owned 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 state-owned enterprise and that Mr Hajiyev was a PEP.
He submitted that the “fresh evidence” upon which Mrs Hajiyeva sought to rely showed she was “under investigation in Azerbaijan for fraudulently spending significant sums”. 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.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett – sitting with Lord Justice Davis and Lord Justice Simon – will hear Mrs Hajiyeva’s challenge over a single day and judgment is expected to be reserved.