Javad Marandi, a top businessman with ties to the Conservative Party, has been implicated in an elaborate money laundering scheme.
A National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation found some of Mr Marandi’s overseas interests had played a key role in the illicit scheme involving one of Azerbaijan’s richest oligarchs, Javanshir Feyziyev, who is also a member of the country’s parliament.
In January 2022, a judge ruled the NCA could seize £5.6m from the London-based Feyziyev family. Their British bank accounts received cash that had been removed from Azerbaijan in what the judge said had been “a significant money-laundering scheme”.
Javad Marandi, who ironically has an OBE for services to business and philanthropy, strongly denies wrongdoing and currently isn’t subject to criminal sanction. He was originally granted anonymity at the outset of the court hearing, but this has since been revoked as he has been identified by High Court judges as being a “person of importance” in the NCA’s case. Primarily, it was Marandi’s Avromed Seychelles company through which the illicit money flowed, with investigators claiming more than £150 million was paid out to various recipients, including Feyziyez and Marandi himself.
Marandi owns the iconic design brand The Conran Shop, a stake in the luxury handbag firm Anya Hindmarch Ltd, and an exclusive private members’ club and hotel in Oxfordshire. None of these or any other of Marandi’s UK businesses form any part of the NCA’s investigation.
Marandi’s ties to the Conservative Party emerged through reports of his generous donations. Between 2014 and 2020, he gave £756,300, according to Electoral Commission records. He also reportedly had access to senior party members, including Boris Johnson, then prime minister.
While the Conservative Party claim that they only accept donations from “permissible sources”, this is certainly not a good look for them. It isn’t the first time they have been embroiled with stories of dubious funding and fraud, and the same can be said of Labour. It is also alarming that an influential businessman with ties to foreign powers could potentially have significant sway with our leaders.
Duncan Hames, director of policy at the anti-corruption research group Transparency International UK, called the development a “political bombshell” and said that it “should be a concern, not just to people who are worried about where that money came from, but about what it says about how easily money can reach political parties without [them] doing proper checks on its origins”.
It just goes to show how compromised British politics has become, and it is time for a fresh, transparent party like Homeland to lead the way. We are not, nor we will ever be, tarnished by shady dealings and illegitimate business.
