Diamond ring worth £1m seized from woman who spent £16m at Harrods

A diamond ring worth more than £1m has been seized from the wife of an Azerbaijani banker, who spent £16m at Harrods.

The Cartier jewellery has been confiscated for six months by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is investigating allegations of corruption, to look into how it was bought.

Investigators believe the ring's owner Zamira Hajiyeva, whose husband Jahangir Hajiyev is serving 15 years in jail for fraud and embezzlement in Azerbaijan, does not have a legitimate source for her immense wealth.

As well as spending £16m at Harrods over a decade, Ms Hajiyeva owns two properties worth a combined £22m.

She is the first person ever made subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order by the NCA, a new measure intended to crack down on foreign nationals hiding money gained through corruption in Britain.

Ms Hajiyeva, who denies any wrongdoing, must explain to the court’s satisfaction how she and her husband could afford to buy their £11.5m house in Knightsbridge and a golf club in Berkshire.

The 8.9 carat diamond ring, valued at £1.19m when it was bought in 2011, was seized by the NCA after it was taken back into Cartier to be repaired.

The NCA had previously seized £400,000 worth of jewellery from the Christie’s auction house, where it had been put up for auction by Ms Hajiyeva’s daughter.

Ms Hajiyeva had initially sought an anonymity order to prevent any reporting of her identity, but this was dismissed by the High Court in October.

In a statement at the time, the director of economic crime at the NCA, Donald Toon, said: “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.”

But lawyers for Ms Hajiyeva said: “The decision of the High Court upholding the grant of an Unexplained Wealth Order against Zamira Hajiyeva does not and should not be taken to imply any wrongdoing, whether on her part or that of her husband.”