Man Jailed for Eight Years in UK's Largest Cash Laundering Scheme
Samir Jagirdar used his scrap jewellery firm to facilitate the laundering of £266 million, which was then smuggled to Dubai as gold.
Samir Jagirdar, 58, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in orchestrating the largest cash laundering scam in U.K. history. The scheme involved approximately £266 million in criminal funds being converted into gold and smuggled to Dubai.
Jagirdar utilized his scrap jewellery company, Pure Nines, as a front to accept vast sums of cash from across the country. This money was then used to purchase gold grain, which was subsequently shipped to the United Arab Emirates under the guise of fake invoices. When authorities raided his Hatton Garden business, they discovered 146 fake gold bars alongside one genuine bar, intended to create the appearance of a legitimate operation.
Investigators from West Yorkshire Police's Economic Crime Unit had been looking into the laundering scheme for a decade. Jagirdar admitted his guilt and was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court. In addition to his prison sentence, he has been banned from acting as a company director.
During the investigation's peak, the operation was processing as much as £1.7 million daily. Between 2014 and 2016, over £200 million in illicit funds was laundered through the NatWest bank account of Fowler Oldfield, a jeweller based in Bradford. The jeweller's accounts showed a dramatic increase, rising from £11,000 in 2012 to over £650,000 a year later, and reaching £95 million in 2015.
Couriers were frequently observed delivering large quantities of cash in bags and boxes to Fowler Oldfield, disguised in fast food containers and children's toys. Staff at the jeweller would then count the money using specialized machines before it was collected and deposited into the company's bank account.
Jagirdar is the seventh individual to be sentenced in connection with the scheme. Previously, Fowler Oldfield director Daniel Rawson, Gregory Frankel, Haroon Rashid, and Arjun Babber were convicted. Frankel received a sentence of 11 years and eight months, Rawson 10 years and 10 months, Rashid 10 years, and Babber 11 years. However, only Rawson was present for sentencing, as Frankel, Rashid, and Babber had fled the country or were in hiding. Judge Andrew Stubbs KC noted that Rashid was reportedly in Colombia and Frankel was living in Israel and employed by the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
Ramona Senior, who led West Yorkshire Police's Economic Crime Unit during the investigation, stated that those involved played a part in an operation of "truly industrial scale." She emphasized that money laundering is not a victimless crime and that individuals involved enable criminals to profit from serious offenses like drug trafficking, human trafficking, and modern slavery. The investigation was described as the largest ever undertaken by the unit and required significant tenacity and skill from the specialist investigators.
Two other men were sentenced in August, and four more are scheduled for sentencing in March 2025.