UK Art Dealer Jailed For Selling Over Rs 1.6 Crore Art To Hezbollah Donor

A British art dealer who appeared on BBC television shows appraising antiques was jailed Friday for two years and six months for failing to report "high-value" art sales to a suspected Hezbollah donor.

Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was sentenced by London's Old Bailey criminal court for selling artwork worth almost £163;140,000 (Rs 1,62,44,816) to Nazem Ahmad, suspected of financing Lebanon's Hezbollah which is banned as a terrorist group in the UK.

"You knew about Ahmad's suspected involvement in financing terrorism and the way the art market can be exploited by people like him," the sentencing judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, said.

Ojiri pleaded guilty to eight offences of failing to disclose information under the Terrorism Act, and is thought to be the first person convicted under the specific charge.

The art expert, who appeared on the BBC show Bargain Hunters and who owned a gallery in London, sold eight artworks to Ahmad -- whose name was kept off the paperwork -- between October 2020 and December 2021. 

Ahmad, a Lebanon-based wealthy art collector, was sanctioned in 2019 by United States authorities, who suspect him of being a "high-level" Hezbollah financer.

Ojiri was "aware of the financial sanctions" the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He sought to "conceal the identity of the true purchaser by changing the details on invoices" and saving Ahmad under a different name on his phone, according to Bethan David from the CPS's Counter Terrorism Division

"His motivation appears to be financial along with a broader desire to boost his gallery's reputation within the art market by dealing with such a well-known collector," added David.

The art dealer was arrested in April 2023, on the same day that the UK government announced sanctions against Ahmad.

His lawyer said Ojiri was arrested "while filming a BBC television programme", adding that the defendant had been "naive".

London's Met Police officers also seized several artworks, including a Picasso and one by Andy Warhol, belonging to Ahmad from two UK warehouses as part of a joint operation with US Homeland Security.

The case "should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, prosecute those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups," said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)