Category: Asset Seizure

Seized golf course and home up for sale for £19.5m

Asset Seizure, Fraud
A Berkshire golf club and Knightsbridge house forfeited by a jailed banker’s wife have been put up for sale for a total of £19.5m. Zamira Hajiyeva agreed to give up Mill Ride Golf Club in Ascot and the home, which is on the market for £14.75m, external, after a six-year National Crime Agency (NCA) fraud investigation. It resulted in the UK’s first unexplained wealth order and a trustee was appointed by the High Court to sell the assets in the autumn. Online adverts for them went live last month. Mrs Hajiyeva’s husband, Jahangir, was the chairman of the state-controlled International…

SFO recovers £250,000 tennis club debenture from convicted fraudster

Asset Seizure
Today at Southwark Crown Court, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confiscated £250,000 from Achilleas Kallakis, one of the convicted fraudsters behind the UK’s largest ever mortgage fraud, held at the prestigious West London sports club, The Queen’s Club. SFO investigators identified the £250,000 debenture by tracing the funds through a complex chain of offshore accounts, including a purported family trust, to his £740 million fraud. Mr Kallakis’s name was displayed prominently alongside other notable members on the Debenture Board in the club’s reception in return for the debenture that he purchased in 2007. He also received club membership and access…

SFO recovers criminal assets from £740m property fraud concealed through school donation

Asset Seizure
Today, the SFO confiscated an additional £92,500 from Achilleas Kallakis, one of the fraudsters behind the UK’s largest ever mortgage fraud case – ten years after his conviction. A recent SFO investigation exposed how criminal proceeds from this fraud were donated towards a theatre at Mr Kallakis’ child’s London private school in 2005. When the school later removed the Kallakis name from the theatre, the family took legal action against it, revealing the additional funds to the SFO. Following a three day hearing at Southwark Crown Court, this donation, paid through a complex family trust fund, was confirmed as the…

London council could seize oligarchs’ homes for affordable housing

Asset Seizure, Sanctions
Homes acquired with “dirty money” in the richest parts of London could be seized and turned into affordable housing under plans to crack down on oligarchs using Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair “to rinse their money”. Labour-controlled Westminster city council is examining the use of compulsory purchase orders in extreme cases where it finds properties are not being used for their stated purpose, as part of a push to “combat the capital’s reputation as the European centre for money laundering”. The plan faces obstacles including a lack of transparency over property ownership and a shortage of checks on the registration of…

France initiates new Crypto bill to allow the seizure of assets

Asset Seizure, Digital Currencies
Authorities in France have proposed a new crypto bill that will allow the seizure of digital assets belonging to criminals. With this bill, any investor involved in illicit activities through their accounts is at risk of forfeiting their assets to the authorities. The bill has now been presented for deliberation at the house level. France President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to introduce this new bill is similar to the effort unfolding in the United Kingdom. UK newly elected prime minister Liz Truss has vowed to carry on with his predecessor’s plans to expand authority to seize and recover crypto assets. Recall…