U.K. antiques show expert admits selling art to suspected Hezbollah financier

LONDON – A British art dealer who appeared as an expert on a BBC antiques show has pleaded guilty to selling artworks to a suspected financier for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, pleaded guilty during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Friday to eight charges of failing to disclose potential terrorist financing.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is designated as a terrorist organization by Britain and the United States.

Ojiri, who owned an art gallery in East London, made frequent appearances as an expert advising contestants on the popular British television show “Bargain Hunt” and other programs.

Prosecutor Lyndon Harris told the court that Ojiri had sold several artworks to Nazem Ahmad, whom he knew to be a suspected terrorist financier sanctioned by the United States and Britain because of links to Hezbollah.

Prosecution documents summarizing the case against Ojiri said that on multiple occasions, he put paperwork relating to sales to Ahmad in the names of “other individuals suggested by Mr. Ahmad’s associates, in what is alleged to be an attempt to disguise the true owner of the works of art.”

The value of the artworks Ojiri sold to Ahmad between October 2020 and January 2022 was approximately 140,000 British pounds ($186,000 at current exchange rates), Harris said.

The BBC said that Ojiri had not worked on any BBC programs since 2023 and had been a freelancer rather than a member of the corporation’s staff. He had also appeared on several shows for other British broadcasters.

Ojiri was released on bail before a sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court on June 6. The maximum sentence for the offense is five years’ imprisonment.

Ojiri’s case is notable not only because of his television background but also because he is the first person to be charged with certain offenses under section 21A of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000. The law makes it illegal for people in some sectors to “fail to disclose” suspicions of terrorist fundraising, financing or money laundering.

Britain’s art sector became a regulated sector under the law in January 2020.

Harris said Ojiri had discussed the changes to the law with a colleague and had sought formal advice, indicating that he knew the “new regime applied to him and his business.”

Harris said Ojiri had dealt with Ahmad directly, negotiating sales of artworks and “congratulating him on purchases” that were sent to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and to Beirut.

“At the time of the transactions, Mr. Ojiri knew that Nazem Ahmad had been sanctioned in the U.S. as a suspected terrorist financier,” the prosecutor added. “Mr. Ojiri accessed news reports about Mr. Ahmad’s designation and engaged in discussions with others about it, indicating his knowledge or suspicions.”

Ojiri owned and operated the Ojiri Gallery, originally called the Ramp Gallery, in the Shoreditch area of London.

He was arrested by counterterrorism police April 18, 2023. That followed cooperation with the U.S. Justice Department, which announced charges on the same day against Ahmad and eight associates for evading terrorism-related sanctions, describing Ahmad as a “diamond smuggler and art collector” who had dealt in millions of dollars’ worth of goods and services.

When interviewed by the police, Ojiri said he did not support terrorist activity and that he had no reason to suspect or believe that Ahmad was a terrorist or money launderer, the prosecution said.

Ojiri described Ahmad as a big “name” in the art-collecting world and said he knew of other galleries that had dealt with him.

A U.S. statement said Ahmad lived in Lebanon and was a dual Belgian-Lebanese citizen who had been put under sanctions by the United States for being a financier for Hezbollah in December 2019.

At the time of the designation, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a unit of the U.S. Treasury Department, said Ahmad was considered a major Hezbollah financial donor who had “laundered money through his companies for Hezbollah and provided funds personally to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.” It added that he “stores some of his personal funds in high-value art.”

The Justice Department said that despite the sanctions, Ahmad had used a “complex web of business entities to obtain valuable artwork from U.S. artists and art galleries.”

Artwork that Ahmad allegedly obtained from the United States between December 2019, when he was sanctioned, and April 2023, when he was charged, was valued at more than $450,000, while an additional $780,000 in artwork from people outside the United States was also acquired in what the U.S. said was a violation of terrorism sanctions.

The British Treasury said Ahmad also had an “extensive art collection in the U.K.” and conducted business with multiple artists, galleries and auction houses in the country directly and through several associated companies.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.