An art dealer who worked on the BBC show Bargain Hunt has been jailed after failing to report art sales to a man suspected of financing Hezbollah.
Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, from west London, was sent to prison for two and a half years after selling artwork worth about £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad.
Ojiri had previously admitted eight offences under section 21A of the Terrorism Act 2000. He is thought to be the first person to be charged with that offence.
Ojiri was charged with failing to disclose information about transactions in the regulated art market between October 2020 and December 2021.
Prosecutors in the US have said Ahmad was a major donor to Hezbollah, claiming that he used valuable art and diamonds to launder money for them.
Ahmad is accused of evading terrorism sanctions by using front companies to acquire more than $160 million in artwork and diamond services.
Nazem Ahmad
In 2023 the National Crime Agency seized 23 works from Ahmad’s art collection worth £1 million in total. They included a 1962 linocut by Pablo Picasso, two works by Andy Warhol and two works by the living artists Stanley Whitney and Ali Banisadr, worth £400,000 in total.
His wider collection, which the US Treasury says is estimated to be worth more than $54 million, includes a version of pieces by Ai Weiwei, Thomas Heatherwick and a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which was purchased for £2,210,500.
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Commander Dominic Murphy of the Met’s counterterrorism command, said: “This prosecution, using specific Terrorism Act legislation, is the first of its kind and should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, pursue those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups.
This Warhol was seized by police in raids on two of Ahmad’s warehouses
METROPOLITAN POLICE
“Oghenochuko Ojiri wilfully obscured the fact he knew he was selling artwork to Nazem Ahmad, someone who has been sanctioned by the UK and US Treasury and described as a funder of the proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah.
“Financial investigation is a crucial part of the counterterrorism effort. A team of specialist investigators, analysts and researchers in the national terrorist financial investigation unit works all year round to prevent money from reaching the hands of terrorists or being used to fund attacks.”
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced Ojiri to two years and six months in prison at the Old Bailey on Friday, with a further year to be spent on licence.
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