Mill Ride Golf Club in Berkshire, which was forfeited by a jailed Azerbaijan banker’s wife following a six-year fraud investigation by the UK government, has been put up for sale for a guide price of £4.25 million.
Zamira Hajiyeva agreed to give up the Ascot-based club and a Knightsbridge home which has been valued at £14.75 million, after a National Crime Agency fraud investigation resulted in the UK’s first unexplained wealth order. A trustee was appointed by the High Court to sell the assets last autumn, with both properties coming on to the market in recent days.
Mrs Hajiyeva’s husband, Jahangir, was the chairman of the state-controlled International Bank of Azerbaijan from 2001 to 2015 and is serving a 16-year jail sentence for fraud and embezzlement.
The NCA said last year it believed the golf course and house were obtained as a direct result of ‘large-scale fraud and embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering’. It said it had found ‘no reasonable explanation’ for the source of funds used to buy both properties.
An NCA spokesperson said 70% of the proceeds from the sale of the golf club and the London property will be kept by the government, with the remaining 30% returned to Mrs Hajiyeva.
Mill Ride GC, which first opened in 1990 and boasts a 6,821-yard, 18-hole championship course designed by Donald Steel, has continued to operate normally throughout the investigation.
Details regarding the sale of the club, which is being handled by Savills, can be found here.