{"id":25315,"date":"2023-05-16T05:41:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T09:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=25315"},"modified":"2023-05-16T05:41:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T09:41:09","slug":"javad-marandi-conservative-party-donors-link-to-massive-money-laundering-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/05\/16\/javad-marandi-conservative-party-donors-link-to-massive-money-laundering-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Javad Marandi: Conservative Party donor’s link to massive money laundering probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

A top businessman whose foreign companies were part of a global money laundering investigation is a major donor to the Conservative Party.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Javad Marandi, who has an OBE for business and philanthropy, can be named after losing a 19-month legal battle with the BBC to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Mr Marandi strongly denies wrongdoing and isn’t subject to criminal sanction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The judgement against him is a milestone for freedom of the press amid growing privacy laws in the courts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A spokesman for the businessman said: “Mr Marandi is deeply disappointed at the court’s decision to lift reporting restrictions, knowing the reputational damage that is likely to follow.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation found some of Mr Marandi’s overseas interests had played a key role in an elaborate money-laundering scheme involving one of Azerbaijan’s richest oligarchs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

In January 2022, a judge ruled the NCA could seize \u00a35.6m [$7m] from the London-based family of Javanshir Feyziyev, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"Azerbaijan<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
\n
Javanshir Feyziyev: Family has a London base and UK bank accounts (Image: EPA)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Their British bank accounts received cash that had been removed from Azerbaijan in what the judge said had been “a significant money-laundering scheme”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The family have denied that allegation – and at the outset of the hearing, in October 2021, Mr Marandi was granted anonymity in court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Now, High Court judges have ruled that Mr Marandi can be identified because he had been a “person of importance” in the NCA’s case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

‘Successful international businessman’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Mr Marandi, 55, was born in Iran and grew up in London, where he still lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

His ties to the Conservative Party emerged through reports of his generous donations. Between 2014 and 2020, he gave \u00a3756,300, according to Electoral Commission records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

In February 2022, the\u00a0Sunday Times reported he was a member of a group of major donors<\/a>\u00a0who had access to senior party members, including to then prime minister, Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"Javad<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
\n
Mr Marandi is well known for his philanthropic work and support of the arts (Image: France 3)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr Marandi was described in court as a “highly successful international businessman” with a broad portfolio of business interests in the UK and abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

He owns the iconic design brand, The Conran Shop, a stake in Anya Hindmarch Ltd, the luxury handbag firm, and an exclusive private members’ club and hotel in Oxfordshire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Along with his wife, he heads the Marandi Foundation, which funds the Prince and Princess of Wales’s charity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

In 2021, Mr Marandi became a special adviser to homelessness charity Centrepoint, providing guidance on how it could expand its work with disadvantaged young people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

None of Mr Marandi’s UK businesses or these organisations form any part of the NCA’s investigation, which looked at earlier events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

‘Azerbaijani Laundromat’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The probe began in 2017, after investigative journalists revealed an enormous money-laundering scheme, which became known as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed how $2.9bn (\u00a32.3bn) of dirty money – cash stolen from Azerbaijan’s people and economy – had been spirited away by members of the country’s elite. It was largely for their own benefit, but also to bribe European politicians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Paul Radu, the OCCRP’s co-founder, said the Laundromat scheme was one of the most significant examples of post-Soviet looting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

“The Azerbaijani Laundromat brought a lot of damage on many levels to Azerbaijan itself, to the European Union, to the US, and other parts of the world,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

“Small businesses lost a lot of money – they had deposits with a bank that was at the centre of the Laundromat.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Those revelations prompted the NCA to investigate the Feyziyev family’s finances in the UK – leading to its application, in 2021, to seize some of their UK cash – and the disclosure in court of the link to Mr Marandi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n