West Midlands lawyer denies helping group launder millions in cash
A lawyer and former West Midlands MP candidate has denied helping a group launder millions in cash.
Solicitor Akhmed Yakoob, 37, who stood as an independent for both the West Midlands mayoral election and the 2024 general election, is accused of assisting people “that wanted help to launder cash of millions of pounds”, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday.
Yakoob, of Aldridge in Walsall, and accountant Nabeel Afzal, 38, from Birmingham, pleaded not guilty to money laundering, encouraging money laundering and contravening a requirement to apply customer due diligence measures when establishing a business relationship between February 18 2020 and January 8 2021.
They were charged after a National Crime Agency probe.
If convicted, they could be jailed to up to 14 years, the court heard.
Yakoob stood in Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s Birmingham Ladywood constituency in the last general election, coming second with 12,137 votes compared to her 15,558, and came third in the West Midlands mayoral election with 69,621 votes.
As a solicitor he represented two brothers who were involved in an incident involving Greater Manchester Police officers at Manchester Airport in July 2024.
Yakoob and Afzal were granted unconditional bail to appear at Southwark Crown Court on July 15.
