Barnet diamond dealer laundered £30 million
'Greedy' Danny Koort and his partner have been put behind bars for 11 and ten years for their role in the criminal activity
The Barnet-based owner of Kosher Diamonds and his beautician partner have been jailed for 11 and ten years respectively for their role in laundering at least £30 million.
The Old Bailey heard how “greedy” Danny Koort, 52, and Jeanette Rosen, 49, used Koort’s diamond-trading business as a front to launder “dirty money,” with Rosen regularly transporting tens of thousands of pounds in cash around London.
Police found £300,000 stashed in Koort’s Fitzrovia offices when they finally swooped on the couple in 2014, after months of surveillance work. Investigators later deciphered codenames to reveal the huge amounts changing hands.
Sentencing Koort to 11 years, Judge Worsley told him it was greed and nothing else that led him into a life of organised crime, as he had been well-off beforehand.
“You were a successful dealer in diamonds and precious metals in Amsterdam, but that was a front for money laundering, a means of explaining large amounts of cash going through your premises,” he said on Monday.
“You were to all intents and purposes an honourable man with a legitimate and profitable business. But it was, I’m sad to say, greed that turned you in this direction.
“You were a perfectly respectable, hard-working and intelligent man with a good standard of living. There was no need at all, unlike some who appear in this court, to turn to crime, and yet you did.”
Rosen and fellow diamond dealer Andrew Russell were also sentenced for their role in shuttling up to a quarter of a million pounds in cash for the bilingual Koort, who ran his own business since 1978.
Prosecutors will now begin confiscating proceedings to recover some of the laundered money.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
