Oxana Zubakova

Oxana Zubakova (Russian: Оксана Зубакова; born 1976) is a Russian model, and entrepreneur.

Early life and career

Zubakova was born in a town 285 miles south of Moscow. In 1992, when she was 15, she won the modelling competition Elite Model Look and picked up a $250,000 cash prize. The contest was set up by model agency Elite Model Management. She moved to New York winning campaigns with top companies, including Procter & Gamble (as 'face' of Camay soap internationally) before going to Paris when she was 17, becoming friends with Ukrainian-born model and actress Olga Kurylenko appearing in commercial campaigns together.

She has worked with leading designers and fashion houses such as Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino and appeared on the cover of Vogue.

In 1999, Zubakova founded OMM (Oxana Model Management), a model agency based in London.^[1]

In 2009, Zubakova established O Private Education to provide tuition and educational advice in the UK.

Met raid

Following London's controversial Operation Rize, which saw Metropolitan officers raid over 6,700 safety deposit boxes in Park Lane's Depository, Zubakova was among the thousands of victims that held a safety deposit, like with other holders consequently her house was then also raided. Zubakova stated "I got back late one night about 11:30pm. I came to the door and it fell down on one side. It had been broken down with force. I walked in and everything was turned upside down. The computer was missing, the telephone. I thought I’d been robbed. But I looked at the shelf where my watches were – there were some expensive ones such as Rolex and Cartier – and they were still there." The police also confiscated money and jewelry found in her safety deposit box. Zubakova’s assets became the subject of an investigation by SOCA by which they believed they must have been linked to her ex-boyfriend, businessman Tarik Meghrabi, who was the next of kin for the box. Zubakova had opened her safety deposit while having her home renovated and put into it a little over £82,000, a £8,000 Tiffany pendant and an £12,000 Cartier necklace. The raid was a part of "Operation Rize", Metropolitan Police’s biggest operation, which involved thousands of people, the majority of which were later proven to be innocent victims. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) allows police to seize valuables and cash of £1,000 or more until they are satisfied with the provenance. It was claimed that Zubakova must have been persecuted not only because she was Russian but also associated to her past relationship with Meghrabi.^[2][3][4]

Appeal

Zubakova hearing date was scheduled for April 11, 2013 but finally her appeal went to court in January 2014 where despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, she lost her appeal to have the assets returned to her. It was reported that Zubakova was told in court, "Aren’t you exaggerating the amount of money models in the fashion world make?" implying that the money must come from something else", furthermore it was said the judge claimed "€20,000 would have been acceptable but €100,000 was too much to be held in a safety deposit", again causing much debate in a disturbing case in which the burden of proof was reversed, requiring asset holders to prove their rights of ownership to SOCA.^[2]

References

External links

• OMM Models