Tory donor’s link to massive money laundering probe

A top businessman whose foreign companies were part of a global money laundering investigation is a major donor to the Conservative Party.

Javad Marandi, who has an OBE for business and philanthropy, can be named after losing a 19-month legal battle with the BBC to remain anonymous.

Mr Marandi strongly denies wrongdoing and isn’t subject to criminal sanction.

The judgement against him is a milestone for freedom of the press amid growing privacy laws in the courts.

A spokesman for the businessman said: “Mr Marandi is deeply disappointed at the court’s decision to lift reporting restrictions, knowing the reputational damage that is likely to follow.”

A National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation found some of Mr Marandi’s overseas interests had played a key role in an elaborate money-laundering scheme involving one of Azerbaijan’s richest oligarchs.

In January 2022, a judge ruled the NCA could seize £5.6m [$7m] from the London-based family of Javanshir Feyziyev, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament.

Their British bank accounts received cash that had been removed from Azerbaijan in what the judge said had been “a significant money-laundering scheme”.

The family have denied that allegation – and at the outset of the hearing, in October 2021, Mr Marandi was granted anonymity in court.

Now, High Court judges have ruled that Mr Marandi can be identified because he had been a “person of importance” in the NCA’s case.

Source: BBC