Reported by Martin Bentham

A multi-millionaire Tory donor who owns London’s famous Conran Shop and a stake in the Anya Hindmarch handbag retailer was revealed today as a key figure linked to a major money laundering operation targeted by the National Crime Agency.

A court ruling said that bank records showed that Javad Marandi, who has been on a Conservative advisory board of ultra-wealthy supporters, either owned or was connected to companies involved in a “criminal enterprise” moving vast sums of illicit funds around the world and into this country.

The judgment states that he received $49 million directly from the bank account of one of the companies used “to launder the proceeds of crime” as part of the scheme – known as the “Azerbaijan laundromat” – and that one of the companies owned by Mr Marandi received a further $107 million from the same account.

It also shows that Mr Marandi was a conduit for dirty money chanelled to an oligarch’s son in London.

Mr Marandi, who is one of London’s most successful tycoons and has a home on Belgravia’s Eaton Square, has strongly denied any wrongdoing and had managed to keep his connection to the money laundering case secret through an anonymity order imposed by a court in 2021.

He had claimed that revealing his name would inflict “catastrophic” damage on him and his businesses, which in this country also include the Emilia Wickstead fashion brand and the Wed2B wedding outfit retailer.

His link to the money laundering case had been kept from the public because of the anonymity order.

Read full report: https://uk.style.yahoo.com/style/millionaire-tory-donor-business-tycoon-051345413.html