A BBC Bargain Hunt expert who was jailed for failing to report a series of of high-value art sales to a man suspected of financing militant group Hezbollah has lost an appeal against his sentence.
Oghenochuko Ojiri was jailed for two and a half years and a further year on licence in June for selling artwork worth around £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a man designated by US authorities as a suspected financier for the Lebanese organisation.
The 53-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to eight offences under section 21A of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Ojiri became the first person believed to have been charged with the specific offence.
At a hearing on Wednesday, barristers for Ojiri told the Court of Appeal that his sentence should be reduced, claiming that the art dealer was ‘naive’.
But three senior judges rejected the challenge, ruling that Ojiri ‘knew what he was doing’.
Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Martin Spencer and Judge Samantha Leigh, said: ‘There is much that can be said in his favour.
‘We can’t, however, accept that he is to be regarded as a naive offender.
‘He may have been, and was, an inexperienced art dealer, but by the time that this series of transactions started, he was fully aware of his obligations, of Ahmad’s activity, and of the reasons why these obligations arose in respect of it.’
Ochuko Ojiri, star of TV show Bargain Hunt arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this year in London
He added: ‘He knew what he was doing and he was committing these offences in order to make a substantial sum of money. There is nothing naive about that.’
The art market was brought under HMRC supervision through new money laundering regulations in January 2020, with Ojiri charged with failing to disclose information about transactions in the regulated art market sector on or before dates between October 2020 and December 2021.
At that time, Ojiri was the owner and operator of Ramp Gallery, later the Ojiri Gallery, prosecutors said.
A previous hearing was told that Ojiri knew that Mr Ahmad, who was understood to be based in Beirut, had been sanctioned in the US.
US prosecutors say Mr Ahmad was a ‘major Hezbollah financial donor’ who used high-value art and diamonds to launder money and fund the group.
He is accused of evading terrorism sanctions by using front companies to acquire more than 160 million dollars (£120 million) in artwork and diamond services.
Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political and militant group based in Lebanon, backed by Iran and known for its armed resistance against Israel.
In the UK, the entire organisation – both its military and political wings – has been banned as a terrorist group since 2019.
Oghenochuko Ojiri was jailed for two and a half years and a further year on licence for selling artwork worth around £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a suspected financier for Hezbollah
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sentencing, told Ojiri he had been involved in a commercial relationship ‘for prestige and profit’, and that he had been ‘seeking the kudos of dealing with an eminent name in the dealing world’.
Gavin Irwin, appearing for Ojiri on Wednesday, told the Court of Appeal that the judge did not have sufficient regard for Ojiri’s naivety or inexperience, and did not take into account mitigating features in the case.
Lyndon Harris, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘This was not a man who was naive or not familiar with the change in the law, quite the reverse.’
He also said that there were examples of Ojiri ‘changing details on invoices’ to hide Mr Ahmad’s identity, stating the offences were ‘a serious example of a section 21A offence’.
Lord Justice Edis said that while the case ‘did not involve any money moving from the appellant to any terrorist organisation or any other criminal source’, Ojiri ‘went to some trouble’ to conceal Mr Ahmad’s identity.
He concluded that the sentence was ‘not manifestly excessive or wrong in principle’.
Ojiri, of Brent, north London, has appeared on a number of BBC shows, including Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, as a freelance presenter.
He was arrested while filming a BBC TV programme, but is understood not to have worked on the corporation’s programmes since 2023.
Nazem Ahmad is a dual Belgian-Lebanese citizen who is sanctioned by both the UK and US
A wanted poster issued by American officials makes it clear they consider Ahmad to be a serious player, with a $10million (£7.52m) reward offered for information on his whereabouts
He was due to appear at the hearing via videolink from jail, but a prison officer told the court that he had ‘declined to attend’.
Counter-terror police investigating Ahmad’s business dealings first arrested Ojiri in April 2023, but he claimed to be unaware of his alleged links to terror.
But he backtracked in a second interview in July 2023, admitting to officers that he knew he was the subject of US sanctions.
According to a CPS summary to a CPS summary of the interview, Ojiri told officers that links with Ahmad were seen as a ‘great accolade’ due to his reputation in the art world.
He said he was ‘sorry’ for his actions and claimed to have been motivated by the ‘excitement and kudos of dealing with a ”name” in the collecting world’, rather than greed.
It represents a dramatic downfall for the previously respected antiques specialist, who first appeared on screens on the BBC’s Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.
He then became a regular on Bargain Hunt, gaining a reputation for his enthusiastic on-screen demeanor and love of hats, before also appearing on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip.
Away from the TV screen, he owned a vintage shop in the capital called Pelicans & Parrots, which was dubbed ‘the coolest place in London’ before shutting its doors in October 2021.
Ojiri has described his love of collecting items including contemporary art, paintings, prints, sculpture and drawings – telling the BBC: ‘I’m absolutely obsessed, in love and infatuated.’
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