A Charedi father and son pair laundered millions of pounds from the illegal sale of Viagra and other prescription medications through Jewish charities, a court has heard.
Edward Cohen, 67, and his 38-year-old son, David Cohen, are accused of funnelling “huge sums of money” through an international network of firms, bank accounts and currency exchanges.
Investigators claim £10.2 million of a total income of £18.7 million between 2012 and 2014 can be identified as laundered money, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The pair’s trial, expected to last 12 weeks, began last Monday.
David Cohen, of Ashbourne Avenue, in Temple Fortune, denies supplying false or misleading information to the Charity Commission, becoming concerned in criminal property, acquiring criminal property and theft.
Edward Cohen, of Paget Road, Stamford Hill, denies supplying false or misleading information to the Charity Commission, two counts of becoming concerned in criminal property, acquiring criminal property and theft.
Police officers raided the community of Chabad UK - which is an entirely separate charity from Chabad Lubavitch UK, and not part of the official Chabad movement - on Oldhill Street, in Stamford Hill, in September 2014.
As well as seizing electronics owned by the defendants, prosecutor James Dawes QC said they found “thousands of pages” of documents allegedly linking the charity to the sale of medication to customers in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
Included in the paperwork, Mr Dawes said, was evidence of “merchant accounts and correspondence in relation to foreign-exchange transfers”, as well as an application to establish a company in Hong Kong.
Mr Dawes said the case will come down to whether the Cohens committed “dishonest or deliberate criminality”, predicting the defence counsel would argue neither man “knew or suspected” money transferred to their charities “came from criminal property”.
Addressing the jury, he asked: “Could you operate such a business without knowing what it was doing – what you were selling?
“Could you go around with your fingers in your ears and your eyes shut for years and years? With these huge sums of money, is it possible you could do that? That will be one of the issues for you.”
In a series of interviews with police across 2014 and 2015, both men provided “no comment” answers to questions by officers.
In an interview under caution in September 2014, shortly after the raid, Edward Cohen provided a pre-written statement in which he explained the Chabad UK charity was “struggling”, saying he did not know how money was subsequently raised.
David Cohen also denies one count of benefit fraud. He is accused of failing to report changes in circumstances in applications for housing benefit.
The defence will begin its opening submissions on Tuesday.
The trial continues.
