Category: Unexplained Wealth Orders

How the Kazakh Elite Put its Wealth Into U.K. Property

Corruption, Money Laundering, Unexplained Wealth Orders
Ministers face claims they have allowed the ruling elite of Kazakhstan to secretly invest vast chunks of the country’s wealth in the London property market after failing to introduce promised new transparency laws. Former prime minister David Cameron pledged at an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016 that the UK would end the secret offshore ownership of property. More than five years later, a proposed register of foreign owners of UK property has still not been introduced. The uprisings in Kazakhstan last week reflected widespread anger at former president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s three decades of rule and the vast fortunes amassed…

Trump Could Be Investigated In Scotland Next Year

Unexplained Wealth Orders
The Scottish government could investigate how Donald Trump acquired two golf courses in Scotland pending a legal challenge in the country’s highest civil court. Nicola Sturgeon’s government has previously said it does not have the power to use an unexplained wealth order to investigate Trump’s two golf courses in the country, Trump Turnberry and Trump International in Aberdeen. An unexplained wealth order would allow authorities to question the Trump Organization about where the money he used to buy the golf courses came from. On Thursday (20 May), however, Avaaz, a human rights group, filed a petition in Scotland’s Court of…

Explaining the U.K.’s “Unexplained Wealth Order”

Unexplained Wealth Orders
Leaders of organized criminal groups, dictators who steal from their people, crooked officials, and other shady characters have become adept at hiding their millions in Western capitals. The convoluted corporate networks, hidden bank accounts, and sophisticated proxy schemes that underlie these financial flows are largely beyond the grasp of all but the most dedicated specialists. But there’s one sector where the corruption takes physical form, turning cities like London into virtual showcases of tainted foreign wealth: Real estate. Sherlock Holmes’ iconic address on Baker Street is owned by structures connected to the daughter of former Kazakhstani dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev. In…

Harrods mega-spender loses Supreme Court challenge

Unexplained Wealth Orders
The Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by a woman who spent £16m in Harrods to overturn the UK’s first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO). Zamira Hajiyeva, wife of a jailed banker, may now lose her £12m London home – and a separate golf course – if she can’t explain her riches. The court said her challenge to the UWO raised no arguable point of law. Mrs Hajieyva’s husband is in jail in Azerbaijan for embezzling millions of pounds from a state bank. Offshore companies connected to the family own Mrs Hajiyeva’s home on an exclusive street in Knightsbridge, as well…