A British national who secured asylum in the UK has been accused by American officials of orchestrating an illicit oil trading scheme worth billions of dollars that is allegedly funding Iranian terrorism.
Salim Ahmed Said, who fled Iraq and gained British citizenship in the early 2000s, has been sanctioned by the Trump administration for allegedly running a sophisticated network that trades Iranian petroleum by misrepresenting it as Iraqi crude.
The 47-year-old businessman, who owns a luxury hotel in Kensington valued about £27 million, purportedly oversees multiple companies that American authorities claim have been conducting this deceptive trade since at least 2020, The Times reports.
US Treasury officials say that revenues from these operations are transported to Iran in vehicles laden with cash, ultimately financing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to American Treasury documents, Said's enterprises employ vessel-to-vessel transfers and various concealment methods to mask their operations.
The scheme allegedly involves combining Iranian petroleum with Iraqi crude, which is subsequently marketed to western purchasers through Iraq or the United Arab Emirates as exclusively Iraqi product, using falsified paperwork to circumvent sanctions.
US officials state: "Said's companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities."
The Treasury further alleges: "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."
REUTERS
|Profits are alleged to have benefited a wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
American authorities claim Said has distributed "millions of dollars in kickbacks" to Iraqi politicians and government employees to enable his profitable enterprise.
Said, an Iraqi Kurd originally from Ranya near the Iranian frontier, arrived in Britain around 2002 seeking protection from Saddam Hussein's persecution of Kurdish communities.
A former business partner revealed: "He claimed asylum and was later given a British passport."
The businessman, who also goes by the name Omed Haji Ahmed, initially resided in Hounslow before establishing his first UK enterprise in 2011 - a Leicester-based Eastern European food shop called Rhine on Granby Street.
After the shop closed in 2014, Said relocated to Dubai to pursue petroleum trading opportunities.
He currently divides his time between a lavish residence on Palm Jumeirah's exclusive artificial islands and Britain, where The Times report he acquired the four-star Gainsborough Hotel near the Natural History Museum in 2018.
The property spans five interconnected Victorian townhouses in south Kensington.
The alleged smuggling network reportedly operates through VS Tankers, a UAE-registered shipping company that American officials claim Said manages whilst concealing his formal involvement.
Treasury documents indicate the firm's fleet includes vessels that conducted four vessel-to-vessel exchanges with the sanctioned Barbados-flagged tanker Casinova in April 2024.
Another UAE entity allegedly under Said's control, Rhine Shipping, previously managed the sanctioned tanker Molecule, which authorities say collected petroleum from an Iranian vessel that had disabled its tracking system to obscure the transfer.
American officials report that in 2023, Said established VS Oil Terminal, registered in the UAE but physically located at Khor al-Zubair in Iraq.
The facility operates six storage containers where Iranian petroleum is allegedly delivered for mixing with Iraqi crude.
Treasury documents state: "VS Oil employees smuggle hard currency into [neighbouring] Iran via cars and trucks some of which carry millions of dollars each as payment for oil."
The American government announced these measures on 3 July, declaring it was "taking action against networks that have collectively transported and purchased billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil, some of which has benefited Iran's IRGC Quds Force, a designated foreign terrorist organisation".
The Quds Force conducts Tehran's international operations, including alleged abduction and murder conspiracies across America, Britain and Europe.
The State Department indicated the sanctions aimed "to stem the flow of revenue the Iranian regime uses to support terrorism abroad and oppress its own people".
GETTY
|Said is alleged to have helped finance Iran's overseas terrorism and domestic repression
British security services and MI5 have disrupted over twenty schemes to abduct or kill Iranian regime critics in the UK since early 2022.
These include multiple planned attacks on staff at Iran International, the independent Persian-language media organisation based in London.
British authorities have remained silent regarding potential action against Said, despite the American sanctions imposed earlier this month.
The Foreign Office, responsible for implementing UK sanctions, refused to discuss the matter when approached for comment by The Times.
Similarly, the National Crime Agency, which handles sanctions enforcement, declined to address questions about Said's case.
A government insider stated: "We do not comment on potential future sanctions designations as to do so may undermine their impact."
Said's UK-registered companies, Robinbest Ltd and The Willett Hotel Ltd, initially listed an accountancy firm in Stratford as their registered address.
The firm confirmed awareness of the American sanctions and disclosed it had informed Said of its decision to terminate services.
By 9 July, both companies had relocated their registered address to the Gainsborough Hotel's location in Queensberry Place, south Kensington.