Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Just in case you don't know, Iranian-born multi-millionaire Tory donor, Javad Marandi - one of London’s most successful tycoons who has a home on Belgravia’s Eaton Square - is linked to a major money laundering operation.

https://twitter.com/Politics_co_uk/status/1658460232668856320

In the 1990s, he worked as a business development manager for The Coca-Cola Company in Central Asia, & the area manager for emerging markets at Big Tobacco's Philip Morris International, before starting his own businesses in tobacco distribution, advertising & telecommunications.

In 2018, following revelations in the #PanamaPapers, it was reported that the Azerbaijan leader's daughters tried to buy £60m London home with offshore funds, which would have carried ‘significant risk of money laundering’.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/d…

Details emerged in a disciplinary tribunal into the solicitor who carried out the transaction, Khalid Sharif. Sharif – a senior partner with the London firm Child & Child – admitted failing to carry out money-laundering checks and breaching his professional code.

The tribunal fined him £45,000 and £40,000 in costs. He is the first UK professional to be punished following the publication in April 2016 by the Guardian and other media of the Panama Papers – 11.5 million leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Javad Marandi, a close associate of the Azerbaijan president, introduced the Aliyeva sisters to Child & Child. Sharif then set up a British Virgin Islands company on their behalf, bought from Mossack Fonseca. Its purpose was “holding UK property”.

theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/…

Marandi himslef is both an investor & developer in the UK property market, & has invested in numerous luxury establishments within the hospitality sector, including hotels & restaurants such as Shirvan, the Michelin starred-chef Akrame Benallal's high-end restaurant in Paris.

Marandi lost a 19-month legal battle with the @BBC to remain anonymous regarding a NCA global money laundering investigation, & on 16th May, it was reported the NCA found some of Marandi's overseas interests had been involved in the Azerbaijani laundromat money-laundering scheme.

In 2013 the Marandi family, one of Azerbaijan's richest, was thought to live in a house in Eaton Square in London's Belgravia sold in 2007 for £3.8M & in 2010 for £20.5M. This led to legal difficulties. Marandi was reported to have "two private jets & a passion for vintage wine".

He "donates" to the Conservative Party, "giving" them £756,300 between 2014 & 2020, & £250,000 during the 2019 UK general election campaign.

Predictably, Marandi was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours list.