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Pakistani tycoon agrees to hand over £190m to UK authorities
Nine freezing orders secured against Malik Riaz Hussain in ‘dirty money’ investigation
Rupert Neate Wealth correspondent and Jasper Jolly
Tue 3 Dec 2019 18.50 GMTFirst published on Tue 3 Dec 2019 18.49 GMT
The £50m property at Hyde Park Place, London, Malik Riaz Hussain agreed to hand over as part of the settlement. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
More than £190m of assets, including a £50m mansion overlooking Hyde Park in London, have been seized from a Pakistani property tycoon after a settlement in a UK police “dirty money” investigation.
On Tuesday, the National Crime Agency said Malik Riaz Hussain had agreed to the multimillion-pound settlement that did “not represent a finding of guilt”.
NCA investigators secured nine freezing orders that covered £140m in funds held in UK bank accounts after allegations that the cash may have been the proceeds of crime. The money and ownership of the central London property will be handed over to the government in Pakistan, where Hussain had been charged with fraud and corruption. The freezing orders were on the cash and assets rather than against any individual.
Hussain is the owner of Bahria Town, Asia’s largest private property developer. He had been the subject of an unexplained wealth order, which froze eight of his UK bank accounts containing £120m the NCA “suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption overseas”.
Included in the £190m settlement is a grade-II listed 10-bedroom mansion that includes a cinema, swimming pool, gym, steam room and spa. The seven-floor property on Hyde Park Place was previously listed for rent on property website Zoopla for £86,667 a month.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...hands-over-pounds-190m-to-uk-authorities-nca-
