SOCIALITE James Stunt allowed his prestigious Mayfair office to be used as “a trusted hub for money laundering” as part of a Bradford-linked multimillion-pound scheme to turn criminal cash into untraceable gold, prosecutors have told a jury.
The former son-in-law of F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is one of five men on trial over the alleged network which saw £200 million from the proceeds of crime laundered over two years, a court heard.
Prosecutors say that between 2014 and 2016, cash was brought from all over the country to Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield, Stunt’s business premises in London, and an office in Hatton Garden of a company called Pure Nines Limited.
The defendants are accused of hiding the origin of the money by washing it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold, which was shipped to Dubai.
Gregory Frankel, 47, Daniel Rawson, 47, Haroon Rashid 54, James Stunt, 42, and Arjun Babber, 32, have gone on trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with money laundering.
Opening the case to jurors on Thursday, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said Frankel and Rawson were the owners of Bradford jewellers Fowler Oldfield, which had become the centre of a multimillion-pound money laundering operation by the time police intervened in September 2016.
The jury heard the “dirty money” was delivered by couriers to three sites – Fowler Oldfield, Stunt & Co and Pure Nines – before being paid into Fowler Oldfield’s bank account.
Mr Sandiford said: “Between 2014 and 2016, over £200 million in criminal cash was paid into the Fowler Oldfield NatWest bank account to launder it – that is, to give it the appearance of being clean money from a legitimate source.
“Most, if not all of the cash paid into the account was then used to purchase or pay for clean gold from reputable bullion suppliers such as Bairds, Metalor, Cookson and Bank of Nova Scotia.
“Thus, the first two defendants allowed their company and its bank account to be used as a gateway for criminals to funnel cash into the banking system and to purchase gold.
“Those criminals were able to bypass the due diligence checks to which they and their cash would have been subjected had they themselves attempted to bank the cash or to buy gold from a reputable supplier.”
Rashid is accused of collecting cash and bringing it to be laundered at Fowler Oldfield, with Mr Sandiford saying he provided a money laundering service for others and was “the most likely route by which Frankel and Rawson became involved in money laundering”.
The court heard he owned a company called Rashid Jewellers Limited but in 2014-2016, that business had no commercial premises or stock and was registered to his home address in Bradford.
Babber, who was based in London where other members of his family ran the “well-known and reputable business” RPS Jewellers Limited had his own company called Goldsteel Limited.
Mr Sandiford said in 2015 Babber began to launder cash for others through Fowler Oldfield “on a scale that dwarfed that of Rashid”.
The court heard Stunt allegedly got involved in the scheme in 2015, when he was married to Petra Ecclestone, the daughter of billionaire Bernie Ecclestone.
Mr Sandiford said Stunt had set up a refinery at the Sheffield Assay Office in a legitimate venture to turn scrap gold into high purity Stunt & Co-branded gold bars.
In mid-2015, staff at the Sheffield Assay Office introduced Stunt to Fowler Oldfield as a potential business partner for the refinery project.
The jury was told Stunt made Frankel and Babber vice presidents of Stunt & Co and started allowing his Curzon Street offices to be used “for the delivery of criminal cash and some of the gold purchased with it”.
Mr Sandiford said: “As with Fowler Oldfield, the prosecution say Stunt & Co became a trusted hub for money laundering, and it was used by Arjun Babber, Haroon Rashid and Pure Nines.
“Between February and August 2016, between £20 and £30 million in cash was dropped off by couriers at the Curzon Street premises of Stunt & Co.
“It was either collected by G4S or the Post Office and taken to a collection centre, or paid into the Fowler Oldfield bank account at the nearby NatWest branch.”
The court heard Stunt allegedly began to share in the profits generated by the money laundering service, taking “the lion’s share” of 70 per cent compared to the 30 per cent retained by Fowler Oldfield.
Mr Sandiford said the identity of the criminals who owned the cash was not known.
He told jurors: “Given the scale of the money and the appearance of it, the most likely source was large-scale drug dealing.
“But it could have been from some other form of criminality that generates large-scale cash proceeds such as fraud, tax evasion, dealing in high value stolen property, illegal gambling, or a combination of them.”
Mr Sandiford said no records were kept about who the money belonged to and, in most cases, who had delivered it.
Jurors were told that 14 of the couriers who were seen on CCTV delivering cash to Fowler Oldfield have since been convicted of money laundering offences.
The court heard Stunt denies knowing or suspecting the money was criminal property, Rawson and Frankel accept some of the cash was criminal but deny knowing it was, while Rashid and Babber dispute the money was criminal and claim it was legitimate.
Before the case opened, Judge Andrew Stubbs KC told the jury that three of the defendants – Frankel, Babber and Rashid – were not present in court, but said they “must not speculate as to why that is”.
The defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.
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