Court documents
- National Crime Agency v Zamira Hajiyeva [2018] EWHC 2534 (Admin) (High Court judgment on Hajieyva’s application to discharge the unexplained wealth order)
- Zamira Hajieyva v National Crime Agency [2020] EWCA Civ 108 (Court of Appeal judgment on Hajieyva’s appeal of the High Court’s decision)
- Consent Order handed down by Mr Justice Cavanagh in August 2024 (court order approving Hajiyeva’s settlement)
In 2018, Zamira Hajiyeva became the first person in the UK to be subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order (“UWO”), a tool which was heralded as a turning point in law enforcement’s ability to investigate and seize assets suspected to be linked to illicit wealth.
Hajyeva came to the UK in 2006 on a Tier 1 Investor Visa, known as a ‘Golden Visa’, having invested £1 million in UK government bonds with a loan from her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev. Hajiyev, who was the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (“IBA”) between 2001- 2015, was sentenced to a 15 years’ imprisonment by the Azerbaijani authorities for defrauding the bank of £2.2bn and ordered to pay the bank US $39m.
Hajiyeva lived in a glamorous Knightsbridge townhouse, just a stone’s throw away from Harrods – where court documents reveal she spent £16m between 2006 and 2016. This included over £300,000 in a sandwich shop, £1.9m on Cartier and £3.5m on Boucheron jewellery. Notably, she spent £2,000 on cold meats on a single day in 2014. To pay for these goods, she used over 54 credit cards, over 30 of which were issued by the bank for which her husband was chairman.
Hajiyeva’s conspicuous spending was to be her downfall. On 27 February 2018, the UK’s National Crime Agency (“NCA”) obtained two UWOs concerning her residence of 12-14 Walton Street and another property they suspected she owned, the Mill Ride Golf and Country Club in Ascot, Berkshire. These properties were worth £11.5m and £10.5m respectively.
However by 2024, after a protracted legal battle, the NCA abandoned their efforts to recover the full value of Hajieya’s assets through civil recovery proceedings, with the parties instead reaching a court-approved settlement whereby she would retain 30% of the value of the properties. With Hajiyeva set to walk away with millions of pounds following the settlement, this case is a cautionary tale of how asset recovery proceedings can fall dramatically short of initial expectations.
