Woman’s insane $30m shopping spree
FOR years, banker's wife Zamira Hajiyeva indulged her $7400-a-day shopping addiction.
Now, authorities suspect she was spending money embezzled by her husband the whole time - and they want answers.
Azerbaijan-born Zamira Hajiyeva, who lived in a luxurious property in the wealthy London suburb of Knightsbridge, is being investigated by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
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And the agency is demanding an explanation of how Ms Hajiyeva got her hands on the cash.
Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, was the former chairman of the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan but is now behind bars after being found guilty of fraud and embezzlement in October 2016.
He was slapped with a 15-year prison term and ordered to repay more than $52 million.
Ms Hajiyeva had tried to remain anonymous while she was being investigated, but this week, Britain's High Court lifted her anonymity order, CNN reported.
During the course of the investigation, it was revealed Ms Hajiyeva racked up a staggering $30 million bill between 2006 and 2016 thanks to regular shopping sprees at high-end UK department store Harrods, located near the woman's $21.4 million home.
According to the NCA, Ms Hajiyeva was spending around $3 million a year - or $7400 a day - using 35 different credit cards at the store which were all issued by the International Bank of Azerbaijan, The Mirrorreported.
Jahangir Hajiyev was handed a 15-year jail term. Picture: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Harrods wasn't her only shopping haunt. Court documents also revealed the 55-year-old once splashed a whopping $280,000 on jewellery in a single day after snapping up a number of items by high-end jewellery, perfume and watches brand Boucheron.
The next day, she allegedly spent more than $3300 on wines and spirits.
Other items on her luxury shopping list include Cartier jewellery worth $186,000, men's goods worth $37,000, an $18.6 million golf club in Berkshire, England and a $58 million jet.
Ms Hajiyeva is the first person to be investigated in the UK under an "unexplained wealth order" - a new power, also dubbed "McMafia laws", which have been granted to authorities to tackle corruption.
Those laws require "a person who is reasonably suspected of involvement in, or of being connected to a person involved in, serious crime" to explain how they managed to buy their property.
She is now facing the possibility of losing assets including her two UK properties.
alexis.carey@news.com.au
My view: Is she not bored shopping daily for material things?,