A Belgian-Lebanese art collector and suspected financier of the Hezbollah militant group has been accused with money laundering and evasion of sanctions through $160 million in art and diamond transactions.
On March 29, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York accused Nazem Said Ahmad and eight co-accused on nine counts of money laundering, circumvention of sanctions and customs laws, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and foreign governments. UK authorities frozen Ahmand’s assets there on Tuesday April 18 and one of the co-defendants, Sundar Nagarajan, was stopped.
Ahmad did not respond to Hyperallergic immediate request for comment.
Ahmad has an extensive collection of works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat, which he documents on his popular instagram account, but he also exploited the art and luxury markets for his own illegal activity. The US government sanctioned Ahmad in 2019, saying he used an art gallery in Beirut, Lebanon, to launder money, and named him Hezbollah’s “best donor” than the United States. designated a terrorist organization in 1997. When sanctioned, the U.S. Treasury Department said Ahmad used his businesses to launder money for Hezbollah. The department also said Ahmad stores his “personal funds in high-value art.”
The recent charges relate to transactions that took place after Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019. Most of the $160 million relates to a deal in which Ahmad manipulated the value of diamondsbut at least $1.2 million is related to illegally obtained art.
The prosecutor’s office, however, says that number is likely much higher.
“These amounts underestimate the true total value of the artwork, as part of the criminal scheme involved evading taxes imposed by foreign governments by undervaluing the artwork,” the statement reads. indictment. bed.
The indictment notably does not name specific artists or galleries that sold works to Ahmad. He mentions a few specific cases, like that of a New York-based artist who sold Ahmad six paintings – worth a total of $199,800 – that were smuggled out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Brooklyn. . Ahmad allegedly told the artist not to mention his name. One of these paintings, which appears to be by the artist stickymonger, may be seen hanged in Ahmad’s house in Lebanon.
Hyperallergic reviewed Ahmad’s Instagram account and photographs included in the indictment and identified by popular contemporary artists such as Nicasio Fernandez, David Salle, Ufo907, Stickymonger, Luke Agada and Terron Cooper Sorrells.
When reached for comment, Sorrells expressed disappointment with the situation.
“My gallery and I had no idea of Nazem’s actions. It’s a shame that most of my early paintings, which I worked very hard to create, are now involved in something like this,” Sorrells said. His works were sold to Ahmad in 2021, the year Sorrells says he quit his “day job” to become a full-time artist.
Sorrells added an all-too-familiar conclusion: “It turns out not everyone in the art world is who they say they are.”
