Bargain Hunt star jailed for selling art to suspected Hezbollah financier

A former Bargain Hunt art expert has been jailed for two years and six months for failing to declare art he sold to a suspected financier of Hezbollah.

In the first prosecution of its kind, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, admitted eight counts under the Terrorism Act 2000 of failing to make a disclosure during the course of business before his sentencing at the Old Bailey on Friday. Hezbollah is a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK.

Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Ojiri had been aware the art he had sold was to Nazem Ahmad, who had been sanctioned in 2019 by the US authorities.

“These offences are so severe that only a custodial sentence can be justified,” she said.

She said there was no evidence Ojiri supported any form of extremism but that his conduct undermined the detection of terrorist financing.

Gavin Irwin, representing Ojiri, said the art expert’s “humiliation is complete” with the star losing “his good name” and the “work he loves.”

“He’d like to apologise for undermining trust” in the art market, Mr Irwin said, adding Ojiri had been naïve.

Profiting from an individual who funds terrorism is an extremely serious matter, said Cdr Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command.

“Raising money for terrorism is a core part of how terrorist groups are then able to cause harm around the world,” he added.

So how did an art expert, famous for appearing on UK daytime television get mixed up in funding Hezbollah?

Financial investigators working in a specialised counter-terrorism unit at Scotland Yard had been tracking a series of suspicious transactions between the Middle East and London.

Working with HMRC and colleagues in the Metropolitan Police’s art and antiques unit, they focused on nine payments made in 2020 and 2021 by a man called Nazem Ahmad.

He was sanctioned in 2019 by US authorities because he is believed to be a top donor to Lebanon-based Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political and military group, which is backed by Iran and banned as a terrorist organisation by the US and UK.

Hezbollah used Ahmad, who has joint Lebanese-Belgian nationality, “to launder substantial amounts of money bound for the terrorist group”, according to the US Treasury department.

It claims Ahmad has longstanding ties with the illegal trade in “blood diamonds”, a reference to how diamonds are sometimes used to fund armed conflict and insurgencies.

US authorities are offering a $10m reward for information about Ahmad, who is thought to still be in Lebanon.

Authorities in the US claim Ahmad, 60, who has a vast art collection worth millions of pounds, opened an art gallery in his home city Beirut as a front to launder money.

Transactions uncovered by UK police showed that Ahmad paid nearly £140,000 for works, which he had shipped from London to Dubai and Beirut.

He bought them from Ojiri, including a £20,000 painting by Icelandic artist Baldur Helgason.

Ojiri founded Ramp Gallery, now known as the Ojiri Gallery, based in east London.

He came to public prominence with appearances in the BBC series Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, before hitting the big time on Bargain Hunt, in 2019. He has also appeared on Channel 5’s Storage: Flog the Lot!

In 2021, he joined Antiques Road Trip where he scoured antique shops for treasures, competing to make the most money at auction and always wearing one of his trademark hats.

By this time, he had made several secret sales of art to the Hezbollah financier.

Although he was careful to keep Ahmad’s name off the paperwork, officers in the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit tracked the money to Ojiri and, in April 2023, police arrested him.

On the same day the Treasury sanctioned Ahmad and banned him from travelling to the UK.

The US authorities also charged Ahmad with defrauding the US and foreign governments, money laundering and sanctions evasion, claiming companies connected to him had been engaged in more than $400m worth of financial transactions between 2020 and 2022.

As part of the American case, the Met police arrested a man living in Hayes, west London, for extradition to the US. Sundar Nagarajan is now awaiting trial in New York, accused of acting as Ahmad’s accountant and advisor.

At first, Ochuko Ojiri refused to answer police questions, but in a prepared statement he said he had no reason to believe Ahmad was a terrorist and money launderer.

But evidence seized from his phone showed he had researched who Ahmad was and knew he had been sanctioned by the US. A colleague had even messaged to warn him against doing business with Ahmad.

His arrest came after people working in the art market were brought into the regulated sector in 2019, meaning they were bound by anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures to report suspicious transactions or face prosecution.

Presented with such damning evidence, Ojiri said he was sorry for what he had done and told police he had wanted to grow his business.

He denied being motivated by greed and said it was the kudos of dealing with a name in the collecting world. Ahmad’s Instagram account had 200,000 followers at that time and he was seen as a social media influencer in the art world.

Ojiri was charged under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000 that has never been used before. Police hope it will send a clear message to those doing business in the art world.

“You will need to make sure you are doing your due diligence,” Cdr Murphy said.

Last year, the National Crime Agency issued an amber alert warning that storage facilities for artwork could be used by criminals “seeking a capital asset that can be safely stored, that appreciates in value over time, and that can be liquidated if and when required”.

It followed the seizure of 23 paintings, worth almost £1m, from a warehouse and an auction house in London. The art, which included work by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, belonged to Ahmad.

It will soon be sold off at auction as the proceeds of crime and the money raised will go to the Home Office to be used in the fight against crime.