A Shipley man who was arrested in Estonia and jailed for nine years for his role in a money laundering scam has been ordered to pay back millions of pounds.
Zakir Ahmed, 51, of Nab Wood Drive, Shipley, was convicted with his wife, Majula Salian, 53 (currently residing in India) in 2014 at Bradford Crown Court of converting criminal property between 1 January 2010 and 2 April 2011.
At the same court yesterday (12 December), Ahmed was given three months to pay back £3,545,921 or face another decade behind bars.
Salian was ordered to pay £17,440 within three months or face another year in prison. She was deported to India after serving the 3 years for the conviction of money laundering.
The pair were convicted in 2014 after an investigation found over £3.5m in cash had been laundered through a number of company bank accounts under the control of Ahmed and Salian.
There were seven different limited companies which each had a number of bank accounts and the money was then sent overseas to several countries including the United Arab Emirates, India and Hong Kong.
Ramona Senior, Head of the Economic Crime Unit at West Yorkshire Police, said: “This is another excellent result for the Economic Crime Unit. Firstly to send Ahmed and Salian to jail (the latter was sentenced to three years) and to then secure a significant confiscation order following a long and complex enquiry involving assets laundered across several countries.
“Ahmed doesn’t have very long at all to find a lot of money or serve another considerable sentence inside.
“And if he fails to pay up and goes to prison the debt stays with him until paid in full – there is no escaping it.
“Money Laundering is a serious criminal offence which attracts significant prison sentences and asset recovery powers. Criminals use ‘money mules’ to launder the ill-gotten gains of their crimes and will offer them money for ‘nothing’.
“If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Do not let others access your accounts or accept money you do not know the origin of. If you do, you could be committing an offence.”
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