A British solicitor has been fined and barred from compliance-related roles for five years after failing to conduct proper anti-money laundering checks on funds connected to the family of Azerbaijan’s former security minister. The case once again highlights growing concerns about illicit finance funneled through the UK’s real estate sector using offshore vehicles.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) ruled that Rory Fordyce, a solicitor and director at the now-defunct firm Taylor Fordyce, violated UK anti-money laundering (AML) regulations by facilitating suspicious transactions involving millions of pounds from the Mahmudov family – a politically exposed family from Azerbaijan with a controversial financial track record.

At the center of the case was a £1.9 million transfer from Nargiz Mahmudova, the sister of Anar Mahmudov – himself the son of Eldar Mahmudov, Azerbaijan’s former national security chief. The funds were used to purchase commercial real estate in Newbury, southern England, via an offshore company called Continental Properties Limited, registered in the tax haven of St. Kitts and Nevis.

The SDT described Fordyce’s conduct as “rudimentary, piecemeal and naive,” finding that he had not undertaken sufficient steps to verify the source of wealth or the legitimacy of the funds received into Taylor Fordyce’s client account. The tribunal also noted that Fordyce had overly relied on representations made by a UK-based accounting firm and Mahmudov himself, despite inconsistencies in the information provided.

In its ruling, the tribunal fined Fordyce £32,500 (around $42,000) and ordered him to pay £50,000 (approximately $64,000) in legal costs. He is prohibited from holding any........

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