Two sentenced in £266m gold money laundering plot

Two men have been sentenced for their part in a £266m money laundering-plot based out of a scrap jewellery business.

Baqa Haider and Nathan Rivers played a part in the "industrial scale" operation, which involved processing bags of cash to buy gold grain that was then exported to Dubai with fake invoices, police said.

Haider, 51, was responsible for bogus invoices and exporting the gold while Rivers, 45, worked in the Fowler Oldfield jewellery site in Bradford.

Both were found guilty of money laundering and at Leeds Crown Court on Friday Haider, of Bob Marley Way, Lambeth, was jailed for six years and Rivers, of Hazelwood Drive, Leeds, was jailed for 27 months, suspended for two years.

Rivers was also given a curfew by the judge.

Four other men were found guilty of money laundering in March 2025 and sentenced to up to 11 years each, though three absconded and were sentenced in their absence.

West Yorkshire Police said inquiries continued to track down the trio and secure their extradition back to the UK.

The court heard the scheme, which began in 2013, was described by specialist officers as the largest investigation into the laundering of criminal cash in UK legal history.

The police investigation began in 2016 after a security company raised concerns about the huge daily increase in money being collected from the premises, based on Hall Lane, by their staff.

Bank checks found the amount of cash flowing into the company's accounts had increased from £11,000 in 2012 to more than £650,000 a year later.

By 2015, payments into the company had risen to £95m.

In September 2016 officers searched Fowler Oldfield's premises and two businesses in London, including linked company Pure Nines Ltd, based in Hatton Garden, and arrested 16 people and recovered cash and gold to the value of more than £4m.

A total of 146 bars of fake gold were also found at Pure Nines Ltd, which officers said was to give the appearance of the business being a "legitimate gold dealer rather than a front for money laundering".

Most of the money funnelled to Fowler Oldfield was done via Pure Nines Ltd by an international money launderer based in Dubai, police told the court.

The investigation by the police's Economic Crime Unit involved the forensic analysis of invoices, emails and paperwork as well as studying more than 8,000 hours of CCTV footage.

It calculated that more than £266m was paid into the Fowler Oldfield NatWest accounts from January 2014 to September 2016.

Ramona Senior, head of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: "Those convicted of involvement in this criminal enterprise played their part in an operation that was laundering criminal cash on a truly industrial scale.

"Behind every bank note that went through their fingers is the harm that serious and organised crime causes in our communities."

The four men previously sentenced for money laundering after a trial were Fowler Oldfield director Daniel Rawson, 49, of Syke Green, Scarcroft, who was the only defendant in court. He jailed for 10 years and 10 months.

Fellow company director Gregory Frankel, 48, from Shipley, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in his absence.

Haroon Rashid, 56, of Toller Lane, Bradford, was given a 10-year sentence in his absence and Arjun Babber, 34, of Trevor Place, Westminster, was given an 11-year prison term in his absence.

Pure Nines Ltd owner Samir Jagirdar pleaded guilty to money laundering before the trial and is due to be sentenced at a later date.

Meanwhile in December 2021, NatWest was fined almost £265m following a prosecution brought by the Financial Conduct Authority for failing to comply with money laundering regulations in connection with the case.

Gary Smith, 62, of Apperley Bridge, Bradford, is due to stand trial at Leeds Crown Court on 1 February 2027 with failing to report suspicious activity regarding money laundering.

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