[UPDATED] 1MDB scandal: Kuwait court sentences Jho Low to 10 years’ jail

KUALA LUMPUR – Wanted fugitive Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, was convicted in absentia yesterday in a Kuwaiti court for money laundering charges in relation to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

According to a report by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, the criminal court had sentenced Jho Low, wanted Syrian-French businessman Bachar Kiwan along with an unnamed sheikh and his unnamed partner, to 10 years in jail, the maximum sentence under these charges.

The Kuwaiti daily also reported that a lawyer was sentenced to seven years on money laundering charges related to a Malaysian fund. 

It is understood that the Malaysian fund mentioned in the report is 1MDB. 

Additionally, it is learnt that the sheikh implicated in the report is Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, the son of a former Kuwaiti prime minister Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti royal.

Jaber, who served as the gulf nation’s prime minister between 2011 and 2019, has since been detained following a Kuwaiti court order due to a spate of corruption charges stemming from his tenure as the country’s defence minister. 

Sheikh Sabah’s partner was identified as Low’s associate Hamad Al Wazan, while the lawyer was identified as Saud Abdelmohsan.

The court also ordered those convicted to return US$1 billion (RM4.4 billion) in addition to being fined a total of 183 million Kuwaiti dinars (RM2.6 billion)

According to the report, Kuwait’s public prosecution office had reopened the case following two-year hiatus due to the lack of information from international parties.

“Investigations showed that nearly a billion (US) dollars entered the account of an influential Kuwaiti person, and then it was transferred abroad.”

Kuwaiti public prosecutor Hammoud Al-Shami had charged the defendants “as an organised criminal group” with having committed the crime of money laundering in the Chinese currency, equivalent to 343 million yuan (RM219.3 million)  and 700,000 Kuwaiti dinars, knowing that these funds were proceeds from crimes, theft of funds and investments of the Malaysian sovereign fund. – The Vibes, March 29, 2023