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\n\tThe Sultan of Brunei’s ex-wife Mariam Aziz admitted selling jewellery worth \u00a31m to pay off gambling debts<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe Sultan of Brunei’s ex-wife Mariam Aziz admitted selling jewellery worth \u00a31m to pay off gambling debts<\/p>\n
\tSultan of Brunei’s ex-wife admits reckless gambling sprees ‘chasing the money’ in international high roller casinos at trial of bodyguard accused of stealing \u00a312m of her diamonds<\/p>\n
\tThe former wife of the Sultan of Brunei admitted selling items of jewellery to pay off \u00a31million in gambling debts after indulging in sprees at a string of London casinos.
\n\tTelling Isleworth Crown Court that the mentality of gambling was ‘chasing the money, chasing the money’, Mariam Aziz rejected claims she once blew \u00a33m in a single spree.
\n\tThe court heard the 57-year-old lost \u00a3500,000 in one night, playing the tables at London’s top venues.
\n\tShe was giving evidence at the trial of her bodyguard Fatimah Lim, accused of stealing diamonds worth \u00a312m from her employer, replacing them with near-worthless replicas.
\n\tLim claims she sold the gems to pay off gambling debts accrued over a 20-month period when Ms Aziz visited casinos around the world with her huge entourage.
\n\tThe 35-year-old former international badminton player said she was driven to sell the jewellery after the casinos threatened to sue Ms Aziz.
\n\tThe former wife of the world’s richest man would regularly visit venues in Singapore, Macau and London – including the Clermont Club in Berkeley Square where she had a \u00a32.5m credit limit.
\n\tJurors were told that Ms Aziz persuaded her female Muslim bodyguards to gamble despite their faith and that she would each provide them with gambling chips worth \u00a31,500 a time.
\n\tThe court heard Ms Aziz once blew \u00a3500,000 in one night gambling in London, but the Sultan\u2019s ex-wife rejected claims that she once lost \u00a33m in a single crazed spree.
\n\tLim claims that her former boss struggled to pay off her gambling debts and that she was told to sell her gems for the cash.
\n\tBut Ms Aziz insisted: \u2018No I never asked anyone, especially Fatimah Lim, to sell the diamonds because I would do it myself.’<\/p>\n
\tThe former air stewardess would visit two or three casinos in one night, including Les Ambassadeurs, Aspinalls, and Rendezvous, all near Park Lane.
\n\tRupert Pardoe, defending, suggested to Ms Aziz that she gambled at more than one casino a night because she repeatedly maxed out her credit limit.
\n\tBut Ms Aziz told jurors that she would move between different casinos depending on whether she felt lucky or not.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018The mentality of gambling is chasing the money, chasing the money\u2019, she said.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018It would be the defendant\u2019s suggestion. When the defendant said "you are not lucky here" we would go to another one\u2019.
\n\tMs Aziz, who owns property in Leicestershire, Kensington, and Singapore, claims that she had \u2018no problems\u2019 with her gambling debts.
\n\tBut jurors heard that Ms Aziz transferred swathes of cash into Lim\u2019s bank account in order to pay off her own casino owings.
\n\t![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i58.tinypic.com\/2lcmb74.jpg\")
\n\tShe also sold some of her jewellery in January 2009 for around \u00a31m to pay off her debts, the court was told.
\n\t\u2018There were people in your wider circle not as enthusiastic about gambling as you – there was a perception that it was not in accordance with the activities of a Muslim\u2019, Mr Pardoe said.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018You have hatched a plot to blame Fatimah Lim for the theft of these rings and this diamond bracelet\u2019.
\n\tBut Ms Aziz replied: \u2018No never, she\u2019s the one who\u2019s stolen from me. I never asked her to sell the diamonds.’<\/p>\n
\tLim was eventually confronted for the alleged thefts by Ms Aziz\u2019s nephew Idris Ja\u2019afar in Brunei where she was arrested in January 2010.
\n\tShe initially denied being in London in December 2009, but came clean when Miss Abdullah arrived at the meeting and asked \u2018if Ms Aziz might forgive her and pardon her\u2019.<\/p>\n
\tJurors heard that Lim sent Ms Aziz a letter dated January 28, 2010 in which she claimed that the casinos were intending to sue the Sultan\u2019s ex-wife if her gambling debts were not paid off.<\/p>\n
\tLim allegedly grabbed the jewellery from Mariam Aziz from her Kensington mansion in west London.<\/p>\n
\tThe bodyguard, who won a silver medal in badminton at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, is accused of taking a pear-shaped 12.71 blue diamond worth \u00a37.6 million and a rectangular 27.1 carat yellow diamond worth \u00a3600,000.<\/p>\n
\tShe is also accused of stealing a \u00a33.3 million diamond bracelet.<\/p>\n
\tThe Singaporean allegedly sold the gems and then replaced them with replicas made out of glass and mineral tanzanite.<\/p>\n
\tLim had been hired by Ms Aziz to be her badminton coach before becoming her bodyguard.<\/p>\n
\tSultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world\u2019s richest men, and Ms Aziz, divorced in 2003 after 21 years of marriage and having four children together.
\n\tWearing a headscarf throughout her evidence, Ms Aziz, 59, told jurors at Isleworth Crown Court that she first met Lim through their shared love of badminton.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I met her through playing badminton, we played as partners – I travel a lot and play badminton everywhere for my exercise.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018Her role developed beyond badminton – I later appointed her as my bodyguard before my divorce because I had trust in her.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I have a few bodyguards – they travel with me, applied for visas, book travel tickets, they assisted me in many ways.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I treated most of my staff as family, we were all very close to each other – in the early years I had no reason to doubt the defendant\u2019s trustworthiness.’<\/p>\n
\tMs Aziz told the court how her diamond bracelet, worth over \u00a33m that she bought from a jeweller on Bond Street, went missing in May 2008.
\n\t\u2018It is valuable, a very valuable piece of jewellery\u2019, she said.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I needed it resized – the bracelet was catching on my sleeve. I lost another bracelet this way so, on this occasion, I decided to take it off.
\n\t\u2018I needed help from my bodyguard and on this occasion, Fatimah was with me on duty so I gave it to her and she put it in her bag.
\n\t\u2018Two to three weeks later, I can\u2019t remember the date, I decided to wear it but couldn\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I asked my maid to find the bracelet. I was racking my brains \u2018what happened to my bracelet?\u2019 then I remembered I gave it to Fatimah.
\n\t\u2018She said she knew nothing about my bracelet, I conducted a search but couldn\u2019t find it.’<\/p>\n
\tAsked if she had told Lim to sell the bracelet, Ms Aziz replied: \u2018Never. I never asked anyone to sell any of my jewellery.
\n\t\u2018If I wanted to sell any of my jewellery I\u2019d sell it myself\u2019.<\/p>\n
\tThree months after the bracelet went missing, Lim resigned for health reasons and claimed she had to return to her native Singapore for eye treatment, the court heard.<\/p>\n
\tLim then returned to work Ms Aziz in January 2009 where she continued her close relationship with Ms Aziz\u2019s adopted daughter, Afifa Abdullah.
\n\tThe court heard that Lim twice asked Miss Abdullah to borrow the blue and yellow diamonds as collateral on a property deal on the promise to return them in a short time.<\/p>\n
\tMs Aziz said: \u2018The blue diamond, a gift from His Majesty, is a rare piece of intense colour, flawless, and it\u2019s a valuable piece of jewellery.
\n\t\u2018The yellow diamond was worth $900,000 to $1m, a gift from my ex-husband.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I didn\u2019t want to sell either diamond – I intended it to go to my daughters\u2019.<\/p>\n
\tJurors heard that when Ms Aziz wanted to wear the blue diamond for New Year\u2019s Eve 2009 she discovered that it was made of mineral tanzanite.
\n\t\u2018I needed it resized, so on December 30 I asked Afifa to take it to Mrs Mussai at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane.<\/p>\n
\tMs Aziz made hundreds of visits to casinos across the world, in Singapore, Macau and London
\n\t\u2018I was on my way to the theatre in London, we were on the bus when Afifa called and said the ring isn\u2019t a blue diamond but a tanzanite one.
\n\t\u2018I was horrified, shocked, puzzled. I had lost the bracelet and now the diamond – I had no idea what had happened.’<\/p>\n
\tThe Sultan\u2019s former wife told jurors that her daughter Afifa came to her hotel room on the same night to make a \u2018confession\u2019.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018She came in and said she had lent the blue diamond and the yellow diamond to the defendant because she said she needed it for \u2018business purposes.’ Ms Aziz told the court.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018She said she had financial difficulties and that her mother was not well and that she needed the diamonds as collateral.
\n\t\u2018Afifa said she had borrowed it on two occasions, first in July 2009 and in early December 2009.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018She said that she trusted Fatimah and that she lent it because she was emotional and under pressure, that Fatimah was very frightened.
\n\t\u2018I was horrified, shocked, panicky. I just couldn\u2019t believe what I heard.<\/p>\n
\t\u2018I trusted these people and they betrayed me, doing things behind my back.’<\/p>\n
\tThe court heard that an examination of the yellow diamond proved that it was also a replica, made of glass.<\/p>\n
\tJurors heard after stealing the gems Lim took them to a jeweller in London\u2019s famous Hatton Garden where she claimed they had been a gift from Ms Aziz to her mother – for 28 years of service as her PA.<\/p>\n
\tThey were eventually sold to a buyer in Geneva for around \u00a35m, the court was told.<\/p>\n
\tLim was eventually confronted by Ms Aziz\u2019s nephew Idris Ja\u2019afar in Brunei for the alleged thefts where she was arrested.
\n\tLim, of no fixed address, denies three counts of theft.
\n\tThe trial continues.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sultan of Brunei’s ex-wife Mariam Aziz admitted selling jewellery worth \u00a31m to pay off gambling debts Sultan of Brunei’s ex-wife admits reckless gambling sprees ‘chasing the money’ in international high roller casinos at trial of bodyguard accused of stealing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}