UK freezes millions of Azerbaijani Laundromat money allegedly gone via Baltic states

UK authorities have announced the freezing millions of British pounds of allegedly laundered money linked to Azerbaijan’s ruling elite that is suspected of having passed through Estonia and Latvia.
The British National Crime Agency announced on Monday, January 31, that financial investigators secured a Forfeiture Order for GBP 5.6million (EUR 6.7) in UK bank accounts belonging to family members of Javanshir Feyziyev. The man is a serving member of the Azerbaijan parliament, Chair of the UK-Azerbaijan All Parliamentary Co-operation Committee, and Co-chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Co-operation Committee.
The total amount ordered for forfeiture by British authorities, out of the GBP 15.3 million (18.39) initially frozen in the bank accounts, was GBP 5,630,994 (EUR 6 766 653).
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In a revelation unfavourable to the Baltic states, UK authorities suspected that in the so-called Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme, money would be moved via a complex network of shell companies that operated bank accounts in Estonia and Latvia, a process known as layering. Some of these transfers were accompanied by documents, including invoices and contracts, purporting to support legitimate and very substantial business transactions, the British National Crime Agency wrote in a press release.
Andy Lewis, Head of Civil Recovery at the British agency, commented: «This is a substantial forfeiture of money laundered through the Azerbaijan laundromat, and our success highlights the risk to anyone who uses these schemes. We were able to recover these millions without needing to prove the exact nature of the original criminal activity. We will continue to use civil powers to target money entering the UK via illegitimate means.»