A London student who paid £390,000 up front in rent for a Knightsbridge apartment must now pay nearly half a million pounds, following an investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

Freezing orders for three HSBC accounts held by 22-year-old Vlad Luca Filat were granted in May 2018 – under new penalty provisions introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017  after NCA financial investigators suspected the funds derived from illegal activity by his father, Vladimir Filat, the ex-Prime Minister of Moldova.

The ex-PM is currently serving a nine year prison sentence after he was convicted in June 2016 fo...