Jeweller jailed for laundering criminal cash in £266m gold scheme
Samir Jagirdar has been jailed for eight years for helping launder criminal cash through a scrap jewellery business, as part of a scheme that moved £266 million into gold exported to Dubai. The case matters because investigators described it as the largest criminal cash-laundering operation in UK history, and it took West Yorkshire Police a decade to investigate.
Jagirdar used his Hatton Garden firm, Pure Nines, to take in cash and buy gold grain, which was sent to the UAE under false invoices. Police found 146 fake gold bars and one real bar at the business, which they said was made to look like a legitimate dealer. The wider scheme processed up to £1.7 million a day; more than £200 million was laundered through Fowler Oldfield’s NatWest account between 2014 and 2016. Jagirdar is the seventh man sentenced in the case.
- Jagirdar received an eight-year prison sentence.
- The scheme laundered £266 million through gold.
- Police found 146 fake bars at his business.
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Money laundering is the process of disguising money from crime so it appears to come from a legitimate business. Gold can be bought and sold across borders, making it one way to move large sums while hiding where the money came from.
Hatton Garden in London is known for its jewellery trade, and Samir Jagirdar ran a business there called Pure Nines. Police said it was part of a wider operation involving Fowler Oldfield, a scrap jewellery firm, and the movement of gold to the United Arab Emirates.
The case involved banks, jewellery businesses and police investigators examining how cash and gold changed hands. It matters because of the scale of the operation and the challenges of tracing money across businesses and international borders.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Man who helped launder £266million of criminal cash through scrap jewellery firm is jailed for eight years”.