British Tory sponsor linked to ex-deputy from Baku Feyziev by muddy streams of “Azerbaijani Laundromat”

Big Mac, tobacco and $230 million for Javad Marandi

After nearly two years of litigation, in which the BBC has been heavily involved, a court in London has allowed the name of a well-known entrepreneur and Conservative Party sponsor whose overseas companies have been involved in a major corruption scam to be made public.

This is a British millionaire of Iranian origin, holder of the Order of the British Empire for services to business and philanthropy. Javad Marandi.

Javad Marandi

Marandi himself, whose lawyers have long fought for the right of anonymity in this case for his client, categorically denies any violations and insists that the criminal case does not concern him personally.

Some of Marandi’s overseas assets were key to a complex money laundering scheme, one of Azerbaijan’s richest oligarchs, an important element, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) found.

Back in January 2022, the court ruled that the NCA could confiscate the assets of $7 million of a London-based family. Javanshir Feyzieva on the grounds that the money deposited into her bank accounts had come from an illegal source.

Javanshir Feyziev

“Azerbaijani laundry” for money laundering

The investigation began back in 2017, when journalists uncovered a grandiose money laundering scheme called the “Azerbaijani Laundromat”.

As part of this scheme, Azerbaijani elites withdrew about $3 billion in cash from the country. In fact, this money was stolen from the Azerbaijani economy and people and used for the personal needs of a handful of people, but part of this money was spent on bribing European politicians.

As it turned out during the investigation of the NCA, one of the representatives of this elite was Javanshir Feyziyev, an Azerbaijani MP.

The money that came to his family’s accounts in London was sent from the bank accounts of the Baku company Baktelekom, which looked like the state company Aztelecom and had a consonant name, while it had no employees and did not conduct any noticeable activity.

Javad and Narmina Marandi

As the court found, significant funds received from this criminal scheme were transferred to cover their tracks to two accounts of shell companies registered in Glasgow in the banks of the Baltic countries. And from there, according to the NCA, part of the cash flowed to accounts associated with Javanshir Feyziev and Javad Marandi. Companies with the general name Avromed played a central role in this money laundering scheme, one of which was registered back in 2005 in the Seychelles, and Marandi was listed as its main beneficiary.

Name a name!

At first, when the court had just started considering the NCA case against the Feyziev family, Marandi’s lawyers demanded not to name their client in this regard, arguing that the law enforcement agencies themselves were not interested in him, and therefore mentioning the businessman’s name could violate his right to privacy and cause damage to his reputation.

However, after the arrest of Feyziev’s assets in London, the BBC and the London Evening Standard newspaper stated that it would be in the public interest to announce that the corruption investigation also concerns Marandi’s foreign companies.

The district judge initially agreed, but Marandi’s lawyers were able to persuade the Supreme Court to reconsider the case. A lengthy legal battle ensued, which eventually ended with the judge, on the basis of the principles of open justice, deciding to name Marandi as a person with a direct and important relationship to the investigation.

“Political Bomb”

“It’s a political bomb,” says Duncan Haymes, director of policy for anti-corruption research group Transparency International UK.

The former Liberal Democrat is convinced that the Conservatives now have an obligation to answer a series of embarrassing questions: “We found out today that someone who has donated hundreds of thousands to a British political party has been, according to a judge, at the center of an investigation into a major money laundering scheme. And this is a reason to worry not only about where this money came from, but also about how easily such money can be in the hands of political parties without proper verification of its source.

To this, an official representative of the Tory party noted that the party accepts donations only from permitted sources, namely, persons on the British electoral list or companies registered in Britain.

Successful businessman

Marandi was born in Iran but grew up and lives in London. His ties to the Conservatives came to light through his generous donations, which, according to the Election Commission, amounted to about a million dollars between 2014 and 2020.
Such contributions to the party treasury gave the most generous donors direct access to the party elite, including Boris Johnsonwho was prime minister at the time. The value of such access for a large entrepreneur cannot be overestimated, and Marandi is considered a very successful international entrepreneur.

He owns the fashion brand Conran Shop, shares in the luxury accessories business Anya Hindmarch Ltd, and a private club and hotel in Oxfordshire.

In addition, he, along with his wife, heads the Marandi Foundation, which sponsors the charitable organizations of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

However, the NCA investigation does not involve these organizations or Marandi’s British business, but focuses on his previous deals.