Zamira Hajiyeva, pictured, 55, has had 49 items of jewellery worth £400,000 confiscated by the National Crime Agency
The wife of a controversial former banker who spent £16million at Harrods over the course of a decade had £400,000 of jewellery seized by police under new anti-corruption laws.
Azerbaijani Zamira Hajiyeva, 55, had 49 items confiscated by the National Crime Agency after officers raided an auction house.
Christie’s, which was valuing the jewellery, gave police a pearl necklace, worth £20,000, as well as a Boucheron sapphire necklace valued at around £100,000.
Under the terms of the UK’s first ever Unexplained Wealth Order, Mrs Hajiyeva, 55, must now provide the National Crime Agency with a clear account of how she and her husband could afford to splash tens of millions of pounds on luxuries.
The NCA took the jewellery on Tuesday, and yesterday a judge allowed officials to keep hold of the gems for six months while they determine where the cash came from.
In a statement, the NCA said: ‘District Judge Snow at Westminster Magistrates Court granted detention of the assets for six months to allow further investigation of the property, to determine whether it is recoverable.
‘The items were seized from Christie’s auction house, where they were being valued for Zamira Hajiyeva’s daughter, Leyla Mahmudova.
‘Christie’s auction house cooperated with the investigation, complying with a formal request for information regarding the listed assets.’
Ex-banker Jahangir Hajiyev, bought the jewels, including a pearl necklace, in San Moritz in 2008, for 320,000 euros.
One of the items seized by the National Crime Agency was this Magic Alhambra bracelet worth around £20,000
Pictured: This Boucheron sapphire and ruby pendant is worth around £120,000 and was also taken by the NCA, which has been given a court order to keep the items up to six months
Unexplained Wealth Orders are an attempt to force the rich to tell authorities how they made their money.
Mrs Hajiyeva was recently pictured kitted out in designer gear worth £8,500 while walking her Pomeranian dog near her £11million Knightsbridge mansion.
She wore £625 Gucci Ace sneakers, £530 Gucci striped jersey track pants, and £290 Miu Miu sunglasses.
Her handbag, a £6,500 Hermes ‘Constance’, was by far the most expensive part of the ensemble, which was completed with a black jacket from an unidentified brand estimated to have cost around £800 based on its style.
Pomeranians have been estimated to cost on average around £1,500 a year to look after – so Mrs Hajiyeva, 55, could have paid for her pet’s upkeep for nearly six years with the £8,745 that her outfit is thought to have cost in total.
Her husband is the former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan.
A diamond Panthere pendant by Cartier, left, worth around £9,000 and a diamond cluster and bar necklace, right, worth about £6,000 were also taken
He was jailed in 2016 for 15 years after being convicted of embezzlement in Azerbaijan.
Mrs Hajiyeva was put on a ‘wanted’ list by police there, but by then she was living full-time in Britain.
The identities of Mrs Hajiyeva and her husband were revealed earlier this month after a judge ruled that it was in the public interest.
In the decade up to 2016 she spent £16.3million at Harrods. In one visit alone she blew more than £150,000 on Boucheron and Cartier jewellery.
She paid for the purchases using the 35 credit cards issued to her by her husband’s bank.