Zamira Hajiyeva is wife of Azerbaijani banker jailed for defrauding his state-owned bank out of as much as £2.2bn

The woman at the centre of the UK’s first McMafia-style “dirty money” investigation, who has a £1.6m-a-year Harrods spending habit, has been unmasked as Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of an Azerbaijani banker jailed for defrauding his state-owned bank out of hundreds of millions.

The court of appeal has lifted a veil of secrecy to allow the publication of details of the UK’s first unexplained wealth order (UWO), in which the National Crime Agency alleges that stolen funds were used to buy a £11.5m, five-bedroom property in Knightsbridge, 100 yards from the doors of Harrods. The court heard that Hajiyeva spent £16.3m at Harrods between 2006 and 2016.

The NCA also claims suspect cash funded the £10.5m purchase of Mill Ride golf and country club in Ascot via a company based in Guernsey. The Knightsbridge home was allegedly bought via a firm in the British Virgin Islands, which the NCA alleges is controlled by Hajiyeva.

Hajiyeva’s lawyers had convinced a judge to impose reporting restrictions that prevented the woman, her husband, his bank or their nationality from being reported. Until the lifting of the anonymity order on Wednesday lunchtime, Hajiyeva could only be referred to as “Mrs A”.

Hajiyeva is the wife of Jahangir Hajiyev, 57, the former chairman of the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan. In 2016 he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for defrauding the bank out of up to 5bn manat (£2.2bn).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jahangir Hajiyev. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

The NCA claims Zamira Hajiyeva is wanted by Azerbaijani authorities in connection with avoiding the investigation into fraud at her husband’s former bank. She is one several family members whom the authorities claim Jahangir used to take money out of the country. The family deny the allegations.

The high court heard that Zamira Hajiyeva spent £16,309,077.87 on three Harrods customer loyalty reward cards over a decade. On one trip to the department store she spent £150,000 on products from the luxury jeweller Boucheron. The NCA said she used 35 credit cards issued by her husband’s bank to fund the Harrods spending spree.

The court also heard that Hajiyeva had access to a $42m Gulfstream G550 jet and had a wine cellar stocked with some of the world’s most expensive bottles.

Mr Justice Supperstone has ordered that Hajiyeva must comply with the UWO and explain how she amassed the money used to fund the property purchases. If she is unable to prove the legitimate source of the funds, the properties could be seized.

UWOs – which have been nicknamed McMafia laws after the hit BBC1 drama – are a new tool to help investigators crack down on the £90bn tide of “dirty money” flooding into London by forcing suspected corrupt government-linked officials to prove their wealth is legitimate.

Lawyers for Hajiyeva argued in court that she should not have to prove the source of her wealth because she was not a “politically exposed person”, and said her husband was not a state employee overseeing a state bank but simply a “fat cat” banker.

“The decision of the high court upholding the grant of an unexplained wealth order (UWO) against Zamira Hajiyeva does not and should not be taken to imply any wrongdoing, whether on her part or that of her husband,” Hajiyeva’s lawyer said. “The NCA’s case is that the UWO is part of an investigative process, not a criminal procedure, and it does not involve the finding of any criminal offence.”

Hajiyeva’s lawyers have filed an application to appeal the UWO. “Mrs Hajiyeva has made clear her intention to engage fully in the judicial process and will present her case to the court as appropriate through her lawyers. She will therefore make no further comment at this time,” her lawyer said.

Jahangir Hajiyev’s official salary as chairman of the IBA bank between 2001 and 2008 was a maximum of £54,000. However, Werner Capital, which manages property investments for wealthy people, produced a report in 2011 that stated he was worth £55m.

Jahangir was a high profile banker who toured the world promoting Azerbaijan including speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He was also given awards for his role in steering the country through the financial crisis.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mill Ride golf and country club in Ascot. Photograph: Mill Ride golf club

Jonathan Hall QC, who is representing the NCA, said: “As a state employee between 1993 and 2015, it is very unlikely that such a position would have generated sufficient income to fund the acquisition of the property.”

In her witness statement, Hajiyeva described her husband as “a man of substantial means”. She said: “He was very well-off when we married in 1997 and had accumulated capital and wealth since the early 1990s. As to the purchase of the property, this was my husband’s responsibility. I had no knowledge of any of the payments made to purchase the property, our family home, their source or any other details.”

The Hajiyeva case is being closely watched and if the NCA succeeds it is expected to launch up to nine new UWO investigations.

Donald Toon, the director for economic crime at the NCA, said: “The NCA fully supports an open and transparent justice system that helps demonstrate our determination to ensure that the UK is not seen as a soft target for the investment of illicit finance. Where we cannot determine a legitimate source for the funds used to purchase assets and prime property, it is absolutely right that we ask probing questions to uncover their origin.

“Unexplained wealth orders have the potential to significantly reduce the appeal of the UK as a destination for illicit income. They enable the UK to more effectively target the problem of money laundering through prime real estate in London and across the UK, and we will now seek to move further cases to the high court.”

Transparency International, an anti-corruption campaign group, said it had identified more than £4bn of UK property bought by overseas buyers with suspect wealth.