AN IRAQI businessman granted asylum in the UK has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism and domestic tyranny by Iran.
The Trump administration claims Salim Ahmed Said, 47, has been running a network of firms passing off Iranian oil as a product of Iraq to avoid sanctions for at least five years.
Trucks full of cash made from the scheme have allegedly been sent to Iran to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iraqi Kurd Said became a British citizen after seeking refuge from the Saddam Hussein regime in the UK in the early 2000s.
He owns a £27 million hotel in Kensington, West London, and runs two British companies blacklisted by the US Treasury.
Said was placed under US sanctions on July 3 but UK authorities so far do not appear to have taken action against him.
The US government said that some of the money from the plot had benefited the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, a designated terrorist organisation which leads Tehran’s overseas operations.
The Quds Force is suspected of kidnapping and assassination plots in Britain, the US and Europe and supports terror groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
US Treasury documents state: “Salim Ahmed Said runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020.
“Said’s companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities.
“Said’s companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers, via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions.”
SuppliedSalim Ahmed Said has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
