U.S. Charges Alleged Hezbollah Financier With Illegally Shipping Fine Art, Diamonds
Nazem Ahmad in an image from social media, according to an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors. Photo: Department of Justice By Michelle Hackman in Washington and James Fanelli in New York April 18, 2023 4:41 pm ET An alleged financier of U.S.-designated terrorist group Hezbollah was charged with a scheme to evade American sanctions and illegally import and export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fine art and diamonds. Nazem Ahmad, a Lebanese-Belgian dual citizen who has been banned since 2019 from doing business with U.S. individuals and entities over his association with high-ranking Hezbollah members, was charged with nine counts of fraud, money laundering and evading sanctions, in an indictment unsealed o
Nazem Ahmad in an image from social media, according to an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors.
Photo: Department of Justice
An alleged financier of U.S.-designated terrorist group Hezbollah was charged with a scheme to evade American sanctions and illegally import and export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fine art and diamonds.
Nazem Ahmad, a Lebanese-Belgian dual citizen who has been banned since 2019 from doing business with U.S. individuals and entities over his association with high-ranking Hezbollah members, was charged with nine counts of fraud, money laundering and evading sanctions, in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors say Mr. Ahmad and eight co-defendants set up a complex web of business entities to purchase valuable artwork from American artists and art galleries and to engage a U.S. company to obtain grade determinations on diamonds to increase their sale value, while hiding Mr. Ahmad’s involvement in and benefit from the business transactions. The defendants are accused of illegally importing hundreds of diamonds into the U.S. for grading, including a 45-carat diamond valued at $80 million.
One of the co-defendants, Indian national Sundar Nagarajan, was arrested in London on Tuesday at the behest of the U.S. government, the Justice Department said. Mr. Nagarajan’s lawyer couldn’t immediately be determined. The other eight, including Mr. Ahmad, remain at large. A lawyer for Mr. Ahmad wasn’t immediately identifiable.
The Justice Department has also moved to seize more than 450 diamonds and over a hundred pieces of art tied to the defendants.
Mr. Ahmad and the others, including a son, a daughter and a son-in-law, “engaged in a longstanding scheme to defraud the United States and foreign governments, to evade U.S. sanctions and customs laws and to conduct money laundering transactions,” the indictment said.
The U.S. has increasingly focused its sanctions on politically connected individuals in recent years, according to Greg Gatjanis, an associate director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the Treasury Department. The sanctions have been effective but well-financed targets have become more sophisticated and are finding ways to circumvent the controls, Mr. Gatjanis said at a news conference Tuesday.
“The evasion of sanctions is a very high priority right now for us,” he said.
Mr. Ahmad was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2019, when the Treasury Department said he had channeled millions of dollars directly to Hezbollah, including by using the African diamond trade and high-value works of art to allegedly launder money used to fund terrorism-related activity.
According to interviews he has given to Architectural Digest and online art magazines, Mr. Ahmad has an extensive collection of high-value art that includes works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Prosecutors said with the help of intermediaries and pass-through corporations, Mr. Ahmad was able to purchase art from U.S.-based galleries and artists. He is also accused of paying nearly $200,000 to a New York-based painter for six works in 2021. Mr. Ahmad also instructed the painter not to divulge his name to anyone, they said. The paintings were flown out of the U.S. to a Lebanese business that Mr. Ahmad controlled, according to the prosecutors.
Hezbollah has been forced to diversify its sources of funding as the Iranian government, the terrorist group’s primary funder, has been squeezed financially by international sanctions. The group has increasingly turned to cash markets, including the sale of valuable art and cultural artifacts, to raise cash.
“They’re more exposed today because they’re doing more illicit activities to be able to raise cash,” said
Write to Michelle Hackman at [email protected] and James Fanelli at [email protected]
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