A wealthy Bradford 'businessman' who laundered millions of pounds of criminal cash for himself and others and who defrauded financial institutions out of millions to fund his lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

A wealthy Bradford 'businessman' who laundered millions of pounds of criminal cash for himself and others and who defrauded financial institutions out of millions to fund his lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

Aqeel Khan, 38, acted as a go-to man for criminals across the north of England, using his profits to buy a fleet of luxury sports cars and property across West Yorkshire. His network included his brother, Atique Anwar Khan, 34, who controlled and coordinated the distribution of cash into third-party bank accounts. Khan presented himself as a successful property developer.

Aqeel’s employee Mohammed Zulqurnain, 36, also of Bradford, washed money through his accounts and had property assets put into his name, while local associate Ajib Khan, 34, also admitted laundering money by putting it into property.

The National Crime Agency says that almost £100,000 of cash seized from Ajib’s home address was contaminated with drugs, but British prosecutors generally do not make an issue of such assertions in court because a good 80% of all notes have traces of cocaine on them and defence lawyers are aware of this. For years, however, US prosecutors have used this trick to secure convictions and might be doing so to this day.

In total, the group had £10 million pounds of assets in property, the funding for which had come largely from cash channelled through many bank accounts in an attempt to conceal its source.

Aqeel and Zulqurnain also used insurance brokers as fronts for their criminal enterprise, obtaining finance from legitimate financial institutions for non-existent or vastly inflated insurance policies. The money was then used to fund property purchases or Aqeel’s lifestyle.

All four men pled guilty to money laundering charges, with Aqeel and Zulqurnain additionally admitting fraud offences and Aqeel also pleading guilty to possessing forged bank documents and being in contempt of court.

On Monday 22 December a judge at Leeds Crown Court sentenced Aqeel to six years in prison. Zulqurnain was handed a two-and-a-half year jail sentence, while Ajib received two years and Atique six months.