Financial Times Europe - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

Saturday 21 March/ Sunday 22 March 2020

The home of prime property: propertylistings.ft.com Follow us on Twitter @FTProperty

Follow us on Instagram @ft_houseandhome

Poised for actionYour guide to working from home in style— EDWIN HEATHCOTEPAGE 8

Ascot, bought for £10.5m. If she cannot,

the properties may be seized.

With an established precedent,

experts say the se of UWOs will rise.u

“The Hajiyeva case was very much

seen as a kind of test case,” says Ben

Cowdock, investigations lead at

Transparency International UK, an

organisation that campaigns against

global corruption. “The more that

these orders are upheld in the High

Court, the more the NCA will gain con-

fidence from that and issue them in a

broader range of cases.”

Achangedoffshorelandscape

Not all offshore ownership is illicit.

From his office on the corner of Ebury

Street and Eaton Terrace in Belgravia,

Andrew Quested of Wellbelove Quested

has sold countless homes to buyers

using offshore companies. He thinks

they have been on the receiving end of

bad press.

“People who buy things through com-

panies are not all criminals,” he says.

“There is this thought among the public

that if you’re buying in a company, you

want to hide something. But people do

that for various reasons — certainly, for

some of my clients, the pure reason is

for security.”

Until recently, buying a home through

an offshore company had significant tax

Continued on page 2

Sources: Transparency International UK; FT research Cartography: Steven Bernard

Belgrave Sq

Eaton Sq

BELGRAVIA

KNIGHTSBRIDGE

BELGRAVIA

KNIGHTSBRIDGE

12-14 Walton St

12 and 14 Walton Street –

£11.5m

Owned by: Vicksburg Global,

incorporated in the British

Virgin Islands

In 2018, the home of

Jahangir and Zamira

Hajiyeva on Walton Street in

Knightsbridge was subject

to the first UWO handed out

in the UK

Grosvenor Sq

Hyde Park

Green Park

Piccadilly

MAYFAIRMAYFAIR

WANDSWORTH

SOUTH

KENSINGTON

SOUTH

KENSINGTON

CHELSEACHELSEA

Flats 9 and 14, 21 Manresa Road

Flats 9 and 14, 21 Manresa Road – £31m

Owned by: Tropicana Assets Foundation,

incorporated in Panama

The three properties have been linked to

Dariga Nazarbayeva and Nurali Aliyev, the

daughter and grandson of former Kazakh

president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The

homes were subject to Unexplained

Wealth Orders last year, the second

case to use them in the UK

33 The Bishops Avenue – £39m

Owned by: Manrick Private Foundation,

incorporated in Curaçao; and Alderton

Investments, incorporated in Anguilla

32 Denewood Road – £9.3m

Owned by: Villa Magna Foundation,

incorporated in Panama

Flats 9 and 14, 21 Manresa Road – £31mFlats 9 and 14, 21 Manresa Road – £31m

33 The Bishops Avenue

32 Denewood Road

HIGHGATE

KNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGEKNIGHTSBRIDGE

12-14 Walton St

Owned by: Tropicana Assets Foundation,

have been linked to

, the

daughter and grandson of former Kazakh

HIGHGATE

* Residential and commercial properties

Number of properties by LSOA*

200100500 400 800

Properties in London owned by oshore corporations

B

eneath the mounted head of a

stag in a room at a private

members’ club, former police

detective Jerry Walters is

teaching a class of estate

agents how to spot money launderers.

The group of about 20 — a mix of old-

school English types, slick Instagram-

friendly operators and buying agents

from Russia and the Middle East — has

come to the grand Caledonian Club in

Belgravia, central London, not for relax-

ation but out of necessity. Since January,

the UK’s anti-money laundering regula-

tions have become more complicated,

and many agents must brush up on the

new laws or they could face hefty fines —

even imprisonment.

Some of them say privately that the

new rules are difficult and even “dra-

conian”. But all are resigned to the fact

that they must comply. And so they

are here to learn.

One of the biggest changes affects the

letting of luxury properties. Now, any

tenant or landlord lettinga home for

more than €10,000 a month must go

through the same checks on their source

of wealth that buyers and sellers have

undergone since 2017 — and some of

that responsibility is falling to agents.

For example, an agent to a prospec-

tive tenant who is paying rent through

an offshore company must find out who

the ultimate beneficial owners of that

company are — defined as anyone who

owns more than 25 per cent of shares. In

many cases, they will have to do this by

asking the tenant to supply evidence.

The problem for Walters is that while

the agents at his upmarket training ses-

sion understand their new responsibili-

ties, not all of them agree on at what

point the checks should be carried out.

Walters says checks need to be com-

pleted before money changes hands,

which includes the payment of depos-

its. “But I need to take the deposit

money off the tenant to take the home

off the market,” says one agent — a

neatly dressed man in his sixties who

has been gazing down at the tartan

carpet for several minutes, shaking

his head. “If the checks reveal some-

thing, I can just give the money back

to him.” Several classmates nod in

agreement: “Absolutely,” one mutters.

Walters is clear: “No, no — I assure

you. If you take that person’s money and

transfer it back to them, that is money

laundering.”

Bewarebundlesofcash

Time may be running out for the owners

of London’s hidden wealth. The new

laws are the latest iteration of attempts

to clean up the UK’s luxury property

market, which for decades has been

associated with shady money. About

42,500 properties in London alone are

The case, which is currently being

challenged in the High Court as crimi-

nality is denied, is only the second to

feature the use of UWOs after orders

were placed on two properties owned by

Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of an Azeri

banker sentenced to 15 years for his

defrauding of the state-owned bank.

Since herappeal against the orders

failedin February, Hajiyeva must now

explain how she could afford an £11.5m

house in Knightsbridge and a golf club in

owned by offshore companies. Next

year, the government is expected to

introduce laws that will require all such

property-owning companies to reveal

the names of their “beneficial owners”

— the people who really own them.

In Walters’ training session, the

agents break for coffee and trade stories

about luxury property rentals. Some

tales involve people walking in off the

street and offering to pay rent in

advance with bundles of cash. But the

real target of the new legislation is per-

haps the landlords, says Walters. “It is

another way of bringing to light those

homes that have already been bought by

suspicious or hidden wealth.”

One of the most high-profile meas-

ures for uncovering such assets is the

unexplained wealth order, or UWO — a

new type of court order that the

Uncovering London’s

hidden wealth

UK estate agents are being

trained in new regulations

to halt money laundering in

the luxury property market.

yB NathanBrooker

National Crime Agency can use to freeze

assets it suspects were bought with illicit

money. The new rules, part of the so-

called “McMafia laws” which handed

greater powers to the NCA, came into

effect in 2018.

Anyone teeing off from the sixth hole

at Highgate Golf Club in north London

might just catch a glimpse through the

trees of the subject of one UWO. The

seven-bedroom mansion on Denewood

Roadis one of three properties worth a

total of £80m linked to the family of

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former pres-

ident of Kazakhstan, that are being tar-

geted by the NCA. The properties are all

owned through offshore companies and

foundations. This month the former

president’s grandson and daughter were

named as their beneficial owners in the

High Court.

The law will require

property-owning companies

to reveal the names of the

people who really own them

MARCH 21 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 18/3/2020- 18:16 User:rosalind.sykes Page Name:RES1, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 1, 1