Kuwait court sentences Jho Low to 10 years in jail

Kuwait’s criminal court has sentenced businessman Low Taek Jho, a "sheikh", his partner and one other foreigner, Bashar Kiwan, to 10 years in jail over the embezzlement of funds from 1MDB – the country's biggest money laundering case 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 ordered them to pay a fee of 145 million Kuwaiti dinars (RM2.9 billion) and a refund US$1 billion (RM4.42 billion).
 
Investigations in the case revealed that almost US$1 billion was depositd into the account of an influential Kuwaiti "sheikh", and that the money was then transferred abroad. 

The names of the sheikh, the partner and the lawyer were not disclosed.

The public prosecutor said the men were an "organised criminal group" which laundered money in Chinese currency totalling 343 million renminbi (RM4.95 billion) despite being aware that the funds were obtained through theft, crime, and transactions in Malaysian state funds.

The "sheikh", according to the prosecution, claimed that 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 in fact falsely prepared by the second and third defendents – the partner and the lawyer – without any project stated. 

The public prosecutor revived the 1MDB case after failing to receive information from foreign parties for two years. However, the case was not filed earlier.

Jho Low, who is currently on the run, has been identified as the main person in the 1MDB scandal which resulted in the loss of billions of ringgit.

Muhammad Bashar Kiwan, also known as Bachar Kiwan, is a French-Syrian citizen who has served time in jail for fraud.