Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO): Banker’s Wife May to Lose Property Worth Millions

The wife of a foreign banker faces losing UK property worth millions of pounds unless she can explain the source of her wealth, following a judgment at the high court. The woman, referred to in the judgment as “Mrs A” and cannot be named for legal reasons, was the subject of the UK’s first unexplained wealth order earlier this year following an application by the National Crime Agency.

Counsel for the NCA described the luxury lifestyle of Mrs A, who spent £16m at Harrods over 10 years, at a hearing before the high court in July. Her husband’s net worth was reported to be $72m. The UWO was issued in respect of a property bought in 2009 for £11.5m via a company in the British Virgin Islands. A £7.5m mortgage was also taken out against the property from Barclays Suisse. In 2015, while applying for indefinite leave to remain in the UK, Mrs A told the Home Office that she was the beneficial owner of the BVI company. However, regulators in the Caribbean tax haven told NCA investigators that the company’s true owner was Mrs A’s husband, Mr A, who also cannot be named for legal reasons. For 14 years, Mr A was the chairman of a state-owned bank in a non-EEA country. He resigned in 2015 and was later accused of “misappropriation, abuse of office, large-scale fraud and embezzlement”, according to the judgment. He denied the charges but was convicted at trial and jailed.

The UWO was issued against Mrs A in February this year, freezing the property and requiring her to explain how she had obtained the funds used to procure it. Failure to explain how the property was acquired could potentially result in civil proceedings being initiated to seize it. Her appeal against the order was dismissed by Mr Justice Supperstone following Wednesday’s judgment. Her legal team has seven days to appeal against the decision and apply for her anonymity to be extended.

Read more: David Pegg, Guardian, https://is.gd/lV2vZ2