Dirty Money Spotlights Role of Family Offices as Enablers
Jahangir Hajiyev was convicted of looting millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan. Lawyers, investment advisers and a family office in London helped him spend his money.
Harrods, the London department store where Zamira Hajiyeva, wife of Azerbaijan banker Jahangir Hajiyev, spent $900,000 in one week.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images EuropeThe signs were there. Jahangir Hajiyev, chairman of the biggest bank in Azerbaijan, and his wife, Zamira, appeared to be living on dirty money.
Between 2003 and 2015, the couple spent a fortune in the U.K. They dished out 11.5 million pounds ($14.3 million) for a townhouse in the ritzy London neighborhood of Knightsbridge and another 10.5 million pounds on a golf course and club near Ascot, the famed horse racing locale. They bought a new Gulfstream jet for $42.5 million. Meanwhile, Zamira, wielding 35 credit cards, went wild in Harrods. In one week alone, she dropped about 725,000 pounds in the department store on jewelry, designer clothes and other merchandise.