Bargain Hunt expert loses sentence appeal over sales to ‘Hezbollah financier’

A BBC Bargain Hunt art expert jailed for failing to report a series 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, making him 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.”

He continued: “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.

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.

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”.