TikTok lawyer Akhmed Yakoob has been charged with money laundering offences following a National Crime Agency investigation.
The 37-year-old, along with accountant Nabeel Afzal, 38, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 17 June to each face three criminal charges.
Yakoob, of Perry Barr, and Azfal, of Edgbaston, both in Birmingham, are accused of money laundering; encouraging money laundering; and contravening a requirement to apply customer due diligence measures when establishing a business relationship.
The offences are alleged to have been committed between February 18, 2020 and January 8, 2021.
Yakoob, a lawyer with a love of fast cars and snazzy jewellery, is a criminal lawyer and a director at Maurice Andrews Solicitors in Birmingham.
His fleet of supercars has included a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini, although he now says he has ‘grown out of them’ after intensifying his focus on politics.
Yakoob entered the political fray last year when he announced he was taking on Labour’s shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood in the West Midlands mayoral race in May.
He ended up coming third, but won almost 70,000 votes as an independent who campaigned on a pro-Palestine ticket.
Defence solicitor Akhmed Yakoob (pictured), 37, has been charged with money laundering offences following a National Crime Agency investigation
Akhmed Yakoob is pictured arriving as votes were being counted ahead of the declaration for West Midlands mayor on May 4, 2024 – a battle ultimately won by Labour’s Richard Parker
Mr Yakoob is a prolific uploader of videos to TikTok, where he has thousands of followers
Shortly after the race, he found himself at the centre of a controversy over a ‘deep-fake’ video which led to a viral hate campaign against an innocent teacher.
The video, taken on a doorbell camera, used subtitles to suggest the woman had used a racial slur while canvassing for Labour.
Evidence that the video had been manipulated was then said to have been uncovered by an external digital forensics company employed by Labour.
And West Midlands Police said officers had examined the original footage and concluded no offensive words were uttered.
Mr Yakoob had shared the footage to his TikTok followers, though later deleted his posts about the allegations amid a backlash.
Later that year, he also stood as an independent candidate in Labour’s shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood’s constituency of Birmingham Ladywood.
