unexplained wealth order

[oowee]

Why start with Azerbaijan when we could start with a Russian? From BBC news.

A woman who spent £16m at Harrods in a decade can now be identified as Zamira Hajiyeva - the first target for the UK's new anti-corruption law.

Mrs Hajiyeva lost a legal battle to stay anonymous after the media argued the public should know the full facts.

Originally from Azerbaijan, she is the wife of an ex-state banker.

She risks losing her £15m home near the London store and a Berkshire golf course if she fails to explain the source of her wealth to the High Court.

Under the terms of the UK's first ever Unexplained Wealth Order, Mrs Hajiyeva, 55, must now provide the National Crime Agency with a clear account of how she and her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, could afford to buy their large home in the exclusive London neighbourhood of Knightsbridge.

[The Mighty Prawn]

It's a much better system with the onus being on people to prove how they paid for something rather than previously when the authorities had to prove it came from illicit means - especially with those whose wealth comes from countries that aren't the best at record keeping!!

Standby for some property flooding onto the market in the next few weeks as the oligarchs dump their assets before they are taken away from them

[oowee]

Just seen this on Wiki. 🙂

Jahangir Hajiyev (born 26 October 1961) is an Azerbaijani convicted fraudster and former banker. He was the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan from to 2001, until he resigned in March 2015 citing health concerns. On 14 October 2016, the BakuCourt for Grave Crimes sentenced Hajiyev to 15 years on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and missappropriation of public funds.^[1]

[steve_b_wales]

16 minutes ago, oowee said:

Why start with Azerbaijan when we could start with a Russian? From BBC news.

A woman who spent £16m at Harrods in a decade can now be identified as Zamira Hajiyeva - the first target for the UK's new anti-corruption law.

Mrs Hajiyeva lost a legal battle to stay anonymous after the media argued the public should know the full facts.

Originally from Azerbaijan, she is the wife of an ex-state banker.

She risks losing her £15m home near the London store and a Berkshire golf course if she fails to explain the source of her wealth to the High Court.

Under the terms of the UK's first ever Unexplained Wealth Order, Mrs Hajiyeva, 55, must now provide the National Crime Agency with a clear account of how she and her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, could afford to buy their large home in the exclusive London neighbourhood of Knightsbridge.

Don't forget her £30 million jet.

[panoma1]

I wonder whether 

12 minutes ago, oowee said:

Just seen this on Wiki. 🙂

Jahangir Hajiyev (born 26 October 1961) is an Azerbaijani convicted fraudster and former banker. He was the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan from to 2001, until he resigned in March 2015 citing health concerns. On 14 October 2016, the BakuCourt for Grave Crimes sentenced Hajiyev to 15 years on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and missappropriation of public funds.^[1]

Well it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out where she got the money from! 

[Potter64]

When they get to the bottom of this maybe they will have time to look at the caravan clubs earnings.

[scouser]

I think there may be a glut of 10m + house,s in London coming on the market in the very near future, following this. (About time they did something like this)

[PPP]

7 hours ago, scouser said:

I think there may be a glut of 10m + house,s in London coming on the market in the very near future, following this. (About time they did something like this)

Doubt it, most of these houses are in offshore holding companies or trusts (hence the change in stamp a few years ago) with multiple nominee ownership structures meaning a recovery is impossible.  Just more quickly and poorly thought out legislation and a token gesture at best to try to keep us plebs quiet..  London is still the best city in the world to be domiciled if you can afford to be outside of the law.

[Benthejockey]

You’d imagine if you were able/capable/clever enough to misappropriate millions of pounds you’d be clever enough to hide and invest it in ways that would mean that even if it was suspected that you were a baddie no one could ever really prove it and even if they had evidence you’d acquired it by illegitimate means they’d never be able to find where it had gone or recover it. That’s what I’d do. 

[panoma1]

2 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

You’d imagine if you were able/capable/clever enough to misappropriate millions of pounds you’d be clever enough to hide and invest it in ways that would mean that even if it was suspected that you were a baddie no one could ever really prove it and even if they had evidence you’d acquired it by illegitimate means they’d never be able to find where it had gone or recover it. That’s what I’d do. 

Like the proceeds of crime orders, if a convicted criminal doesn't reveal where the dosh is, and pay up, they get more time in the porridge factory!

[Teal]

There is a lot of dirty money in London, and it is being laundered on prodigious scale. It's part of how the place works, and authority either understaffed, incompetent or turn a blind eye to it. They'll have their reasons for targeting this person,  who doesn't seem to have even made an attempt to show it was clean money, but there will be many others who are off-limits. Much of the finance and investment world is very murky and London is no different unfortunately.

[panoma1]

7 minutes ago, Teal said:

There is a lot of dirty money in London, and it is being laundered on prodigious scale. It's part of how the place works, and authority either understaffed, incompetent or turn a blind eye to it. They'll have their reasons for targeting this person,  who doesn't seem to have even made an attempt to show it was clean money, but there will be many others who are off-limits. Much of the finance and investment world is very murky and London is no different unfortunately.

Wasn't it and won't it ever be thus Teal?

[Teal]

1 minute ago, panoma1 said:

Wasn't it and won't it ever be thus Teal?

Yes probably! I didn't want to sound too much like a tin foil hatter  I couldn't say if it is worse now than ever, and if not London it would be somewhere else. But what strikes me is that now more people are aware of it, and there is gesture politics that tries to pretend the country is on top of the problem. I guess that's what bothers me more than anything, because it's just not true!

[KFC]

They have identified her but they haven't, as yet, seized anything.

If they do then it could cost a lot more than the amount seized, especially the cost of reaching political agreements with certain countries.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/11/uk-could-forced-hand-azerbaijan-millions-harrods-big-spender/

London is openly known as the 'money laundering capital of the world' so I doubt much will change or any effective action be taken.

As  has been said, they might get an individual but an ever-changing list of shell companies will keep enough of those with 'significant interest' hidden as to make it only a token gesture.

This could run and run.🙄

[panoma1]

30 minutes ago, Teal said:

Yes probably! I didn't want to sound too much like a tin foil hatter  I couldn't say if it is worse now than ever, and if not London it would be somewhere else. But what strikes me is that now more people are aware of it, and there is gesture politics that tries to pretend the country is on top of the problem. I guess that's what bothers me more than anything, because it's just not true!

Corruption is endemic in the rich and powerful in society, always was and always will be! In the past it was by neccesity and its very nature, hidden....now because of social and other media it is more easy to identify and expose to the world.........so the agents of corrupt will occasionally chuck in the odd sacrificial lamb, usually "johnny foreigner" to keep the magnifying glass off the rest of em! As you say politicians are not really serious about sorting it! They are too busy getting a duck house built on their stately pile at the publics expense!

Edited October 12, 2018 by panoma1

[henry d]

Nice that they let her spend, spend, spend in Harrods etc and we get a cut of the dirty filthy cash through the tax!

[panoma1]

13 minutes ago, henry d said:

Nice that they let her spend, spend, spend in Harrods etc and we get a cut of the dirty filthy cash through the tax!

Well perhaps that's why the authorities are after her now? Because she was not bankrolling them enough through tax payed on her purchases? Perhaps if she had spent more money (paid more tax) they would have left her alone and focussed on someone else?

[Westward]

If they had been a couple of peasant labourers back in good old Azerbaijan, I very much doubt if they could have just come to Britain and set up home here on a permanent basis therefore it strikes me that for these rich folks and probably a good few thousand others, a certain amount of paying off has been happening all down the line.

It appears that all the immigration rules get waived for those with loadsamoney because, although we may not like them very much, we really like their money. In which case we should be insisting on evidence of the honesty of people's wealth as a condition of entry, not spend a fortune trying to pin them down later.

[Gordon R]

Quote

It appears that all the immigration rules get waived for those with loadsamoney because, although we may not like them very much, we really like their money. In which case we should be insisting on evidence of the honesty of people's wealth as a condition of entry, not spend a fortune trying to pin them down later.

Isn't that just the truth of it.

[Scully]

18 minutes ago, Westward said:

 therefore it strikes me that for these rich folks and probably a good few thousand others, a certain amount of paying off has been happening all down the line.

It appears that all the immigration rules get waived for those with loadsamoney because, although we may not like them very much, we really like their money. In which case we should be insisting on evidence of the honesty of people's wealth as a condition of entry, not spend a fortune trying to pin them down later.

Isn't this how it works in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Switzerland, Monaco etc etc? 

[Westward]

4 minutes ago, Scully said:

Isn't this how it works in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Switzerland, Monaco etc etc? 

Dunno mate. I'm not stinking rich...😁

[norfolk dumpling]

London particularly thrives on 'dirty' money (if that is the correct description) and whilst some of this may be the proceeds of crime - here the husband is in jail for defrauding his banking employer of a few billions - we all benefit through the taxes and fees that are collected. What is the stamp duty and council tax on a £15m London home and a golf course??? Probably a hell of a lot more than the total tax collected from our beaters wages.

[JohnfromUK]

On 10/10/2018 at 18:41, The Mighty Prawn said:

It's a much better system with the onus being on people to prove how they paid for something rather than previously when the authorities had to prove it came from illicit means - especially with those whose wealth comes from countries that aren't the best at record keeping!!

Whilst I agree with the overall principle of 'draining the swamp', I do have concerns over the idea of being 'guilty until you prove yourself innocent'.  I don't understand high finance, but I would guess that 'commercial confidentiality' (e.g. who is backing whom) may be sensitive ......... but not necessarily criminal.  Hence my concerns.

I can also see the difficulty for the authorities in having to prove the money was 'dirty'. 

Overall - it is fine when a reputable investigating force is involved, but could be open to innocent people being 'framed' by informers and having to disclose a lot of sensitive and confidential financial information in order to prove innocence.