The US Treasury Department Sanctioned Dealer Nazem Ahmed for Allegedly Using His Gallery to Fund A Terrorist Group

In a press release issued Friday
by the Department of the Treasury, the US government announced
sanctions on diamond dealer and prominent art collector Nazem Said
Ahmad, in an effort to fight money-laundering that supports
Hezbollah—the Lebanon-based political faction categorized as a
terrorist movement by American officials.

The government’s statement
asserts that Ahmad, whose links to Hezbollah date as far back as
2001, established the Artual Gallery in Beirut as a front to
“launder substantial amounts of money bound for the terrorist
group,” for which he is a “significant financier,” having at one
point even “personally” provided funds to Hezbollah
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. 

Despite his alleged role
adjacent to a designated terrorist organization, the businessman
has also managed to carve out a second reputation for himself: that
of a notable art collector for nearly 30 years, whose collection
includes works by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Jean-Michel
Basquiat (with the full bounty worth, per the Treasury, “tens of
millions of dollars”).

A profile of Ahmad published
earlier this year (and later removed) by the online magazine
Selections Arts
included an exhaustive list of
big-name contemporary artists whose work he proudly owns, including
the likes of Antony Gormley, Barbara Kruger, Gerhard Richter, Yayoi
Kusama, Lucio Fontana, and Ai Weiwei. During the interview, he
reflected upon his first-ever purchase: a work on paper by Pablo
Picasso, which he bought in the early 1990s.  

According to officials, in
addition to using his gallery to conceal money-laundering, Ahmad
also used his extensive collection to advance his illicit
activities by storing “some
of his personal funds in high-value art in a pre-emptive attempt to
mitigate the effects of U.S. sanctions.” 

Ahmad has officially been
considered a “major Hezbollah financial donor” by US agents since
late 2016, with the sanctions coming as a result of years-long
investigations conducted in collaboration with Homeland Security
and the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

The move is part of the Trump
administration’s ongoing fight against terrorist financing, with
Friday’s statement also naming another man, Saleh Assi, as the
subject of sanctions. “This Administration will continue to take
action against Hizballah financiers like Nazem Said Ahmad and Saleh
Assi,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin in a
statement, using the alternate spelling of the group’s name, “who
have used money laundering and tax evasion schemes to fund
terrorist plots and finance their own lavish lifestyles as the
Lebanese people suffer.”

Deputy Secretary Justin G.
Muzinich also added a comment directed specifically towards “art
and luxury goods dealers,” warning them to “be on alert to the
schemes” crafted by criminals such as Ahmad.

Artnet News did not receive a
response to a request for comment from Ahmad via the Artual
Gallery. However, Ahmad is apparently still active on social media:
Earlier today, he uploaded three posts to his Instagram account, two of which are portraits of Andy
Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

The post The US Treasury Department Sanctioned Dealer Nazem
Ahmed for Allegedly Using His Gallery to Fund A Terrorist Group
appeared first on artnet News.