Nahmad Family

The Nahmad family traces its art dealing business to Edmond Nahmad, who established the family's presence in the European art market from Milan in the mid-20th century. ¹ The principal generation active in documented records comprises three brothers: David, Ezra, and Giuseppe Nahmad. David is identified in Panama Papers corporate records as the sole owner of International Art Center (IAC) S.A. since January 2014. ² Ezra and Giuseppe Nahmad held signing authority on IAC's UBS and Citibank bank accounts. ^{2 2}

NYC ACRIS property records document a family real estate footprint across 30 instruments. ⁶ Hillel Nahmad appears in multiple deed and mortgage documents at 721 Fifth Avenue (Trump Tower), Unit 51-J, dated 2010–2012 — the same building floor from which he operated the gambling organization. ⁶ David Nahmad and Colette Nahmad appear in a 2022 transaction via MBJ Law PLLC at 290 Ackertown Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY 10952. ⁶ Eveline Nahmad Matalon — listed at Via Vittore Pisani 2, Milan (2024) and Grand Place A-Apt.8, Crans sur Sierre, Switzerland — appears in the most recent ACRIS activity. Ezra Nahmad and Marie Nahmad are present in older instruments. An entity named NAHMAD FORTUNE appears in Brooklyn records. ^{6 6}

The family's geographic center of gravity for financial operations is Monaco: DHN Ltd., a BVI-registered entity (LEI: 5493002RWQNJJJJ42268, registration number 1785034), lists its headquarters as c/o Davide Nahmad, Roccabella Building, 24 Princess Grace Avenue, Monte Carlo MC 98000. DHN Ltd. was created on July 30, 2013, registered through PFD Corporate Services (BVI) Limited, Tropic Isle Building, Tortola. ⁷ GLEIF shows its LEI as lapsed as of December 2025. ^{7 7}

A review of financial records and public reporting indicates that the Nahmad collection — estimated at $3.5–7 billion and comprising more than 4,500 works including approximately 300 Picassos — is stored primarily in a 15,000 sq ft facility within the Geneva Freeport, a customs-controlled duty-free zone where artworks can be bought and sold without notifying fiscal authorities. ¹ The family has been publicly criticized for holding approximately 90% of its collection in freeport storage rather than making works available for exhibition. ⁸

International Art Center S.A. (IAC) was the corporate vehicle for that holding. It was registered as a Panamanian shell company in 1995 by Giuseppe Nahmad through the Geneva office of Mossack Fonseca and UBS, initially structured with bearer shares — a format providing untraceable beneficial ownership. ² David Nahmad became the sole documented owner in January 2014. ² The April 2016 Panama Papers investigation, published jointly by ICIJ and OCCRP, identified IAC as the vehicle through which the family sought to conceal ownership of Amedeo Modigliani's Seated Man with a Cane (1918). ^{1 2}

Swiss prosecutors raided the Geneva Freeport and seized the Modigliani. ¹ In proceedings before a New York court, the family initially denied beneficial ownership, arguing IAC was an independent entity. ¹ In November 2025, the NY Supreme Court ruled in favor of the claimant — grandson of Holocaust survivor Oscar Stettiner, from whom the painting was looted — finding that David Nahmad had known the painting was stolen property and had attempted concealment for decades. ² The painting had been purchased at Christie's in 1996 for $3.2 million. ^{2 2}

An examination of art market reporting indicates that the Nahmad family were prominent users of Yves Bouvier's Natural Le Coultre freeport network spanning Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore, which provided the same duty-free buying and selling infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions ⁸.

Hillel ("Helly") Nahmad purchased the entire 51st floor of Trump Tower (721 Fifth Avenue) for approximately $21.7 million and maintained a Helly Nahmad Gallery on the premises. ⁹ From that floor, and from Unit 63A controlled by co-defendant Vadim Trincher, Nahmad co-led the Nahmad-Trincher Organization — a sub-enterprise within the broader operation charged in United States v. Tokhtakhounov, 1:13-cr-00268 (SDNY). The umbrella case charged 34 defendants across two interlocked organizations in April 2013. ¹⁰

The Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization, the larger of the two enterprises, was run under the protection of Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (known as "Taiwanchik" or "Little Taiwanese"), an OFAC-sanctioned vor v zakone connected to the Solntsevskaya and Izmailovskaya crime groups and to Semyon Mogilevich, who appears on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. Tokhtakhounov remains a fugitive in Russia; the U.S. State Department offers a reward for his apprehension. ^{11 11} The enterprise laundered more than $100 million from 2006 to 2012 through Cyprus shell companies. ^{10 3}

Helly Nahmad was convicted in November 2013. He was sentenced to one year and one day, served five months at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, was fined $30,000, and forfeited $6.4 million. ¹² He was also charged with wire fraud in connection with a $250,000 painting sale. ^{12 12} FBI wiretap evidence from March 2012 captured Nahmad explaining the art market's utility for financial transfers: "sometimes a bank needs a justification for a wire... you are buying a painting." ³

Nahmad was also a purchaser of two penthouses at 432 Park Avenue (Units 71A and 71B) for $60 million, acquired through an LLC. ^{3 3} The co-defendant Anatoly Golubchik — who received a five-year sentence — has a documented corporate link to the Mogilevich network through the shared directorship of Lytton Ventures Inc., a Cyprus shell company whose other director served entities held under the name of Mogilevich's first wife. ¹³ Steve Witkoff wrote a character reference letter for Golubchik in 2010. ¹⁴

Donald Trump granted Hillel Nahmad a full pardon on January 20, 2021, the last day of his first term, in a batch of 143 clemency actions. White House communications cited Nahmad's post-conviction conduct. ⁴ Attorney Benjamin Brafman advocated for the pardon. ⁴ Brafman also secured pardons for Charles Kushner (tax evasion and witness tampering) and had previously represented Harvey Weinstein and Martin Shkreli. ⁴¹⁵

The pardon foreclosed any further legal proceedings arising from the conviction. ⁴ Nahmad had purchased and operated from the 51st floor of Trump's own building for the duration of the criminal enterprise, a fact that had no bearing on the pardon decision as documented in public records. ^{9 9}

An analytical synthesis in the investigation database positions the Nahmad pardon within a broader pattern of Trump clemency actions covering individuals with pre-existing financial or real estate ties to Trump properties, alongside pardons for Changpeng Zhao and Charles Kushner. ¹⁶ The synthesis also documents that Witkoff — who later became Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East — had vouched for Golubchik, Nahmad's co-defendant, a decade before the pardon. ¹⁷

In April 2014, David Nahmad entered negotiations to sell a Monet (Waterlilies With Reflections of Tall Grass) to Jho Low — the Malaysian financier later charged in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fraud — for $22.5 million. A $2.25 million wire transfer was sent to Nahmad's account. ⁷ Nahmad subsequently stated that the deal fell through and that the painting remained his, with the painting independently valued between $13.6 million and $57 million. ^{7 7}

The 1MDB case also intersects the Nahmad network through the Park Lane Hotel transaction: Steve Witkoff's Witkoff Group purchased the Park Lane Hotel (36 Central Park South) in 2013 for $654 million in a joint venture with Jho Low, whose stake the DOJ later alleged was funded with stolen 1MDB proceeds. ¹⁸

The BVI entity DHN Ltd. (LEI: 5493002RWQNJJJJ42268) — headquartered at Davide Nahmad's Monaco address — was created on July 30, 2013, through PFD Corporate Services in Tortola, four months after the April 2013 indictment of the Nahmad-Trincher Organization. Its LEI status lapsed in December 2025. ⁷ No public beneficial ownership or purpose has been established for DHN Ltd. beyond the GLEIF registration record. ^{7 7}

The DOJ Epstein document corpus (EFTA series) contains four references relevant to the Nahmad family. EFTA02712389, an email dated March 12, 2015 with the subject line "Helly Nahmad. New fun friend," was sent to "Jeffrey" from an unidentified correspondent — approximately 15 months after Nahmad's November 2013 guilty plea and shortly after his release from Otisville. ⁵

EFTA02386102 and EFTA02369796, both from July 2016, document an Epstein associate meeting Joseph Nahmad at a venue identified as "jimmiz" — consistent with Jimmy'z nightclub in Monte Carlo — and subsequently boarding "its boat," indicating social overlap between the Epstein network and Nahmad family members in Monaco. ⁵ A May 2018 email, EFTA01056533, records an associate expressing interest in employment at the Nahmad Gallery. ⁵

None of these references establish a financial or operational relationship between Epstein and the Nahmad family. ⁵ They document social contact in Monaco and New York City gallery circles during the period when the Epstein network was active. ⁵

An analysis of regulatory filings and policy reports indicates that the U.S. art market was, until recently, the largest legal unregulated industry in the country at approximately $65 billion annually. ⁸ The Art Market Integrity Act, introduced in July 2025, would apply Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Act requirements to art dealers — requirements that have applied to other financial intermediaries for decades. ⁸

A 2022 U.S. Treasury study and a March 2025 Harvard HALO report both examined the vulnerability of high-value art transactions to financial crime. ⁸ A review of these records shows that the Geneva Freeport model specifically — in which works are stored and traded within a customs-sealed zone — prevents any fiscal-authority notification of transactions, a gap the Nahmad family's documented operations exploited across multiple decades ⁸.

Note: Albert Nahmad, CEO of Watsco (NYSE: WSO, market cap approximately $7.3 billion, a Miami-based HVAC distribution company) appears in SEC EDGAR Form 4 filings and is a distinct family branch with no documented connection to the Geneva freeport or Panama shell company operations described above. ^{8 8}