A Kuwaiti criminal court has sentenced five people, including Malaysian businessman and financier Low Taek Jho, to up to 10 years in prison for their involvement in money laundering cases as part of the worldwide Malaysian state fund 1MDB scandal.
The court on Tuesday sentenced two Kuwaiti defendants to 10 years in prison in relation to the more than $4.5 billion 1MDB scandal at the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state investment fund.
Mr Low, the fugitive Malaysian businessman and financier, was sentenced in his absence.
A French businessman of Syrian descent and a Kuwaiti lawyer were also sentenced.
They were convicted of laundering $1 billion sent by the Malaysian convict using a Kuwaiti bank account and then transferring the money to Swiss bank accounts.
The court ordered them to return $1 billion and fined them $473 million (145 million Kuwaiti dinars).
Under former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, the country’s sovereign fund was systematically embezzled for a total of $4.5 billion.
According to Kuwaiti reports, the court’s ruling on Tuesday is not final as it can be appealed before the court of appeals and the court of cassation, the highest in the country.
Razak began a 12-year prison term in August after losing his final appeal in the first of several corruption trials related to the 1MDB scandal.
The former prime minister and his associates were found guilty of stealing $4.5 billion from 1MDB in a fraud that stretched from Switzerland to the Seychelles.
The money was used to fund a global shopping spree — a $250-million superyacht, high-end real estate and Monet and Vincent van Gogh artworks were among the items bought with cash plundered from public coffers.
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
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4th ODI, January 16
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
