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Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order

TU Curmudgeon

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
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From ABC News

Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order
​

A woman from Azerbaijan who spent 16 million pounds ($21 million) on jewelry, wine and other goods at luxury London department store Harrods over the course of a decade has become the first target of a new British rule allowing officials to seize money from people suspected of getting their wealth through corruption.

A court has ordered Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).

Hajiyeva's husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.

The case marks Britain's first use of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced this year to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains.

The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 pounds ($66,000) from people suspected of corruption or links to organized crime until the owners account for how they were acquired.

COMMENT:-

This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
​
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order
​

A woman from Azerbaijan who spent 16 million pounds ($21 million) on jewelry, wine and other goods at luxury London department store Harrods over the course of a decade has become the first target of a new British rule allowing officials to seize money from people suspected of getting their wealth through corruption.

A court has ordered Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).

Hajiyeva's husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.

The case marks Britain's first use of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced this year to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains.

The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 pounds ($66,000) from people suspected of corruption or links to organized crime until the owners account for how they were acquired.

COMMENT:-

This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
​
Click to expand...

It happens.

And it gets prosecuted as well.
 
I think London's wealthy expat population is going to drop drastically over the next few months

I can see lots of eastern European rich leaving London over this
 
Good intentions perhaps but way to ripe for abuse by the government for my tastes. I'm not a fan of the Rico act either for the same reason.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using Tapatalk
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order
​

A woman from Azerbaijan who spent 16 million pounds ($21 million) on jewelry, wine and other goods at luxury London department store Harrods over the course of a decade has become the first target of a new British rule allowing officials to seize money from people suspected of getting their wealth through corruption.

A court has ordered Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).

Hajiyeva's husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.

The case marks Britain's first use of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced this year to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains.

The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 pounds ($66,000) from people suspected of corruption or links to organized crime until the owners account for how they were acquired.

COMMENT:-

This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
​
Click to expand...

In the US, you don't even have to be found guilty of a crime first...
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
I think London's wealthy expat population is going to drop drastically over the next few months

I can see lots of eastern European rich leaving London over this
Click to expand...

I think the husband being convicted of financial crimes will cause most people to shrug their shoulders and not care about the greater implications of laws like these.
 
The main intent is to curb the use of Britain as a money laundering paradise by Russian and other eastern European oligarchs and politicians.

Other money laundering havens are the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Panama, and the US. Real estate is the preferred method of money-laundering.
 
Sounds a bit like our unconstitutional asset forfeiture laws. A big difference in this story, however, is the husband was actually convicted for fraud, so it doesn’t seem as egregious to me as other cases.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order
​

A woman from Azerbaijan who spent 16 million pounds ($21 million) on jewelry, wine and other goods at luxury London department store Harrods over the course of a decade has become the first target of a new British rule allowing officials to seize money from people suspected of getting their wealth through corruption.

A court has ordered Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).

Hajiyeva's husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.

The case marks Britain's first use of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced this year to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains.

The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 pounds ($66,000) from people suspected of corruption or links to organized crime until the owners account for how they were acquired.

COMMENT:-

This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
​
Click to expand...

I don't see this as any big deal.

Consider:

1. Her husband was convicted for fraud and embezzlement.

2. She ends up in England with a lot of money.

3. They are telling her to explain where she got her money from.

4. There is nothing in the article that indicates any of her money has been seized.

So...depending on her response and any further action from the British justice system, she will either keep her money or they'll take it. We'll see how it goes.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
Click to expand...
A Trump administration would never push for those kinds of laws or investigations. But I don't think it is completely impossible for that to happen in the US. It's not like the UK government is squeaky clean and beyond all influence of the wealthy.
 
Rogue Valley said:
The main intent is to curb the use of Britain as a money laundering paradise by Russian and other eastern European oligarchs and politicians.

Other money laundering havens are the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Panama, and the US. Real estate is the preferred method of money-laundering.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek and his family would agree with you - especially the "... and the US. Real estate is the preferred method of money-laundering" bit.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Woman who spent $21M at Harrods fights UK wealth order
​

A woman from Azerbaijan who spent 16 million pounds ($21 million) on jewelry, wine and other goods at luxury London department store Harrods over the course of a decade has become the first target of a new British rule allowing officials to seize money from people suspected of getting their wealth through corruption.

A court has ordered Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).

Hajiyeva's husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.

The case marks Britain's first use of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced this year to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains.

The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 pounds ($66,000) from people suspected of corruption or links to organized crime until the owners account for how they were acquired.

COMMENT:-

This, of course, would never happen in the United States of America - right Rico?
​
Click to expand...

LOL, Trump best be careful when visiting the UK.

$25 million settlement finalized in Trump University lawsuit
 
Visbek said:
A Trump administration would never push for those kinds of laws or investigations.
Click to expand...

Quite right, and that is why "Team Trump" made it a priority to repeal the RICO (the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub.L. 91–452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970) and is codified at 18 U.S.C. ch. 96 as 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968 [under that notorious Democrat President, Richard M. Nixon]) laws.
Visbek said:
But I don't think it is completely impossible for that to happen in the US.
Click to expand...

You'd win that bet, since it's been happening since 1970.

Visbek said:
It's not like the UK government is squeaky clean and beyond all influence of the wealthy.
Click to expand...

In complete contrast to the US government?
 
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