Former British MP Faces Parliamentary Ban After Failing to Properly Register Work for Controversial Company

A former British Conservative MP could be barred from the halls of Parliament after a committee found that he failed to properly declare his work for a foreign company, which police allege laundered money stolen from Azerbaijan’s largest bank.

Bob Stewart did work while he was an MP for an Azerbaijan-registered company called VES Consultancy. The firm was owned by a man named Khagani Bashirov who was charged with money laundering in Luxembourg in October. Bashirov’s case is ongoing, and he has not been convicted. 

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) alleged that Bashirov helped Jahangir Hajiyev, the former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, funnel funds out of the financial institution. Hajiyev was convicted in Azerbaijan on charges related to the theft of $3.5 billion.

The NCA alleged that VES Consultancy’s bank accounts were “used to launder huge sums,” which allegedly funded U.K. property purchases for Hajiyev’s family. Stewart told OCCRP last year that he didn’t know about Bashirov’s alleged connection to the embezzlement scheme. 

Following the OCCRP report about his role in companies owned by Bashirov, Stewart referred himself for investigation to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. 

As an MP, Stewart was required to register his financial interest in companies like the one owned by Bashirov. And the commissioner found that he did — sort of. 

But instead of filling in the proper name of the Azerbaijani company, Stewart declared that he had worked with a firm called V.E.S. Consultancy (UK) Ltd between July 2010 and March 2012, according to the commissioner’s findings, which were published by the Committee on Standards.

When asked why he wrote the wrong company name, Stewart said he “did not think that to be the case but if it was I am sorry,” according to evidence attached to the Committee on Standards report. 

The report noted that Stewart’s “responses have been contradictory, sparse or continually changing,” and that he did not seem “to treat this investigation seriously.”

OCCRP was unable to obtain comment from Stewart before publication. 

In addition to filling in the wrong name for VES Consultancy in the form registering his financial interests, the commissioner found that Stewart had failed to declare work for another company owned by Bashirov. 

Stewart, a retired British army colonel, made about $93,949 working with a Luxembourg-registered military equipment and consulting firm called Ksantex S.a.r.l. Since Stewart was a member of the Parliamentary Defence Committee, he should have also declared his work for Ksantex to that body.

However, Stewart failed to both register his financial interest in Ksantex with Parliament and neglected to declare it to the Defence Committee.

In response to questions from the standards commissioner about his failure to mention Ksantex, he said: “I've been a bad boy and I should have known better.”

Had he been a sitting MP, the Committee on Standards said it would have pushed for a 10-day suspension from Parliament for Stewart. That could have triggered a by-election.

However, Stewart stepped down in June 2024, following a conviction for racial abuse that he successfully appealed. The committee instead recommended the termination of his Parliamentary pass, which grants former MPs access to the House of Commons.

Susan Hawley of Spotlight on Corruption, an anti-corruption group, said the committee’s findings about Stewart were “deeply shocking.”

“It raises real questions about whether it is sufficient for someone to just lose a Parliamentary pass after having engaged in egregious breaches that bring Parliament into such disrepute,” she told OCCRP.