The Sun, Jonathan Reilly, 3 Oct 2018, updated 4 Oct 2018
A WIFE who splashed out £16million of her jailed international banker husband’s money at Harrods has lost a bid to keep two mansions under new “McMafia” laws.
Mrs A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, challenged an Unexplained Wealth Order to confiscate the properties, which are worth £22million.
The orders seize rich foreigners’ assets if they cannot prove they were earned legally — like criminals in the hit BBC drama series McMafia, starring James Norton and Juliet Rylance.
The National Crime Agency believes the properties, in the South-East of England, were paid for with money stolen by her husband when he worked for a state bank in their home country.
Harrods loyalty cards show she also used his ill-gotten gains to spend £16million between 2006 and 2016 at the luxury London department store.
Her husband, known in court as Mr A, was chairman of a bank outside Europe from 2001 until his resignation in 2015.
He was later convicted of fraud and embezzlement, jailed for 15 years and ordered to repay £30million.
She took the NCA to the High Court in London to try to throw out one of the two UWOs.
But Mr Justice Supperstone threw out her case yesterday, although she has vowed to appeal. NCA director for economic crime Donald Toon said: “This demonstrates that the NCA is absolutely right to ask probing questions about the funds used to purchase prime property.”
He added: “We are determined to use the powers available to us to their fullest extent where we have concerns that we cannot determine legitimate sources of wealth.”
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