by Bob Walsh
Our
friends across the pond in the U K have an interesting law. It allows
the National Crime Agency to seek an Unexplained Wealth Order. It has
now been used for the first time. If it stands up this allows the
government to seize wealth for which the owner can not adequately
explain how they got it.
The
subject of this first UWO is Zamira Hajiyeva. She is the wife of a
banker from Zaerbaijan. She owns property in the UK worth 16 million
pounds (which I guess is a modest flat in downtown London) and blows
about 16 million a year shopping at Harrods. Her lawyers asserted that
she was being unfairly singled out. Both the Court of Appeals and the
High Court ruled against her and now she must either explain how she got
the money or the government may seize it.
The
case has been running for two years. Her husband's official income is
55,000 per year form the bank and he has no other declared source of
income.
Last year the NCA
seized a buttload of jewelry in her possession and the government in
Azerbaijan is attempting to have her extradited on embezzlement charges,
but the extradition has been blocked by British courts.
2 comments:
I would maintain the money was from a secret dowry from the old country and everyone who knew about it was now dead. All she needs is one witness, her husband.
Hell, that might even work.
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