Kuwait criminal court sentences Jho Low to 10 years in prison

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's criminal court today sentenced a "Sheikh", his partner and two foreigners named Jho Taek Low and Bashar Kiwan, to 10 years imprisonment for the 1MDB fund embezzlement case, the biggest money laundering case in the country so far.

The court led by Counselor Faisal Al-Harbi also sentenced a lawyer to seven years in prison for the same offence.

According to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, the court also ordered them to pay a fee of 145 million Kuwaiti dinars (RM2.9 billion) and refund US$1 billion (RM4.42 billion).

Investigations in the case revealed that almost US$1 billion was deposited into the account of an influential Kuwaiti "Sheikh" and that the money had been transferred abroad. The names of the sheikh, the partner and the lawyer were not disclosed.

The Public Prosecutor asserted that the men were an "organised criminal group" which laundered money in Chinese currency totalling 343 million Renminbi (RM4.95 billion), while being aware that the funds were obtained through stealing, crime, and transactions in Malaysian state funds.

The "Sheikh," according to the prosecution, claimed the funds were acquired from a Hong Kong-based business as a commission for contract advising work performed in 2017 for the execution of China's Maritime New Silk Road project.

(The contract was actually prepared by the second (partner) and third (lawyer) defendants falsely without stating any project).

The Public Prosecutor revived the IMDB case, after failing to receive information from foreign parties for two years, but the case was not filed earlier.

The main insider in the 1MDB scandal, which resulted in losses amounting to billions of ringgit, is Jho Taek Low, also known as Jho Low, who is currently on the run. Muhammad Bashar Kiwan, also known as Bachar Kiwan, is a French-Syrian citizen who has served time in jail for fraud.

-- BERNAMA