Tom Rainsbury acts in successful High Court proceedings against the first target of an Unexplained Wealth Order

On 1 August 2024, an order was granted by Cavanagh J for the civil recovery of a house in Knightsbridge with an estimated market value of £14 million and a golf club in Ascot.

The properties were the subject of the first ever unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) which were introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017. One of the UWOs was made against Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of the former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, and the other was made against a Cyprus-based trust company. Mrs Hajiyeva unsuccessfully challenged the UWO made against her in the High Court ([2018] 1 WLR 5887) and the Court of Appeal ([2020] 2 All ER (Comm)).

The National Crime Agency issued Part 8 proceedings in respect of the properties in June 2023. The claim relied on evidence that funds had been moved across the international banking system, through a network of companies registered in multiple jurisdictions including St Kitts and Nevis, Guernsey and Panama. It was the Agency’s case that the properties had been obtained through fraud, embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering. The order was agreed by the respondents.

Tom acted for the National Crime Agency (with Jonathan Hall KC and Leila Gaafar). Further details can be found here and here.