Jailed banker's wife forfeits golf course and £14m home

Zamira Hajiyeva spent millions at Harrods over a decade

A jailed banker’s wife, who was subject to the UK’s first unexplained wealth order (UWO), has forfeited a Berkshire golf club and a £14m Knightsbridge house.

Zamira Hajiyeva, who spent £16m at Harrods in a decade, agreed to give up the properties after a six-year National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

Mrs Hajiyeva’s husband, Jahangir, was the chairman of the state-controlled International Bank of Azerbaijan from 2001 until his resignation in 2015.

He is currently serving a 16-year jail sentence in the country for fraud and embezzlement, among other offences.

The NCA said it believed the assets were obtained as a “direct result of large-scale fraud and embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering”.

It said it found “no reasonable explanation” for the source of funds used to buy both of them.

Jahangir Hajiyev resigned in 2015 and is currently in prison in his home country

The golf club is reportedly the Mill Ride Golf Club in Ascot.

Mrs Hajiyeva was the first person made the subject of a UWO, a power brought into force in January 2018 under so-called McMafia laws.

They were named after the BBC organised crime drama and the book by journalist Misha Glenny which inspired it.

The NCA applied for a property freezing order over the two assets in March 2021 and a claim for civil recovery at the High Court in June 2023.

On 1 August, the civil recovery order was granted, resulting in the forfeiture of 70% of the value of both properties.