Art expert pleads guilty to selling works to suspected Hezbollah financier

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LONDON (AP) — An art expert who appeared on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt show pleaded guilty Friday to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Ojiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the U.K. and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the U.K. or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses.

U.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.

Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.

“There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links,” Harris said.

Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.

Two years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.

Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court.