Men Accused of Murder Plot Linked to $3.5M Ming Dynasty Heist

Three men facing trial for conspiring to murder a convicted career criminal are also accused of stealing valuable Ming dynasty antiques from a Swiss museum in 2019.

• Daniel Kelly, Stewart Ahearne, and Louis Ahearne are accused of plotting to murder Paul Allen, a former cage fighter and convicted participant in Britain’s largest cash robbery.
• The defendants allegedly stole three Ming dynasty porcelain artifacts worth $3.5 million from the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva in June 2019, a month before the shooting of Allen.
• The stolen items included a 15th-century bottle with pomegranate decoration, a 'chicken cup' wine cup, and a 14th-century phoenix-design bowl.
• Prosecutors claim the defendants attempted to sell the stolen items in Hong Kong and later to undercover officers in London, leading to an arrest in 2020.
• Paul Allen, who was shot in the neck in July 2019 and left paralyzed, had served prison time for the £54 million Securitas heist, much of the stolen money from which remains missing.

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