From Kampala luxury to UK jail: Tycoon David Greenhalgh convicted of trafficking fighter jets, missiles to war zones

David Greenhalgh, the British businessman who shot to fame in Uganda through his turbulent, high-spending romance with city socialite Shanita Namuyimbwa, popularly known as "Bad Black," faces a long prison sentence in the United Kingdom after being convicted of running a massive international illegal arms trafficking ring.

On Thursday, Southwark Crown Court in London found Greenhalgh, 68, and his co-accused, 48-year-old Greek national Christos Farmakis, guilty of running an illicit arms brokering operation, according to BBC. The duo attempted to supply military-grade weaponry—including fighter jets, battle tanks, and surface-to-air missile systems—to war-torn countries subject to strict international arms embargoes.

The convictions mark a dramatic downfall for Greenhalgh, whose name remains heavily etched in Uganda’s entertainment and judicial history. In the early 2010s, Greenhalgh was a prominent fixture in Kampala's luxury circles alongside Bad Black. The couple made headlines for their lavish lifestyle, splashing billions of shillings in high-end Kampala hangouts and driving luxury vehicles through their joint real estate company, Daveshan Development Limited.

The glamorous affair ended in 2011 when Greenhalgh dragged Bad Black and her co-conspirator, Meddie Ssentongo, to Uganda’s Anti-Corruption Court for defrauding him of over $4 million (about Shs 11 billion at the time). In 2012, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire sentenced Bad Black to four years in prison, while Ssentongo received an 18-month sentence.

However, British prosecutors revealed that during the same period Greenhalgh was funding a luxurious lifestyle in Kampala and fighting fraud cases in Ugandan courts, he was concurrently orchestrating clandestine global weapons deals.According to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Greenhalgh and Farmakis operated their illegal network between July 2009 and December 2016. They targeted conflict zones desperate for hardware, including Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Iran, where buyers were willing to pay vastly inflated prices.

Greenhalgh, an aviation expert from Croydon, South London, utilized his 'Airservices' group of companies—which operated across the UK, Greece, North Macedonia, Hong Kong, and South Sudan—to mask the illicit transactions. Farmakis facilitated negotiations using a Cyprus-registered entity called Black Betty Consulting.

Together, they sourced heavy military equipment from Eastern European nations like Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, and the Czech Republic. The terrifying arsenal they br