Kuwait court sentences Jho Low in absentia to 10 years’ jail for money laundering
Published on: Wednesday, March 29, 2023
By: FMT
Jho Low is believed to be in Macau, although Beijing has denied protecting the fugitive financier.
PETALING JAYA: Fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in absentia by a Kuwaiti court on money laundering charges.
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported that a sheikh, his partner and a foreigner were also handed 10-year prison sentences, while a lawyer was sentenced to seven years on money laundering charges in relation to a “Malaysian fund”.
ADVERTISEMENT The group has been ordered to return US$1 billion (RM4.4 billion) and has been fined 145 million Kuwaiti dinars (RM2 billion).
Al-Qabas said Kuwaiti public prosecution charged the defendants as an “organised criminal group” which laundered 343.7 million Kuwaiti dinars (about US$1.1 billion) knowing that it was embezzled from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
While the newspaper did not name the Malaysian fund in question, The Sarawak Report stated that it was 1MDB.
Al-Qabas said Kuwaiti public prosecutors had reopened the “frozen” money laundering case after a two-year hiatus, during which it was unable to obtain information from international parties.
ADVERTISEMENT It also said investigations showed that about US$1 billion entered the account of a Kuwaiti sheikh and was re-transferred abroad.
Meanwhile, a New York Post report stated that the US$1 billion laundered through Kuwait was paid in Chinese currency so as to stay out of the US banking system “and out of reach of the Justice Department and its investigators”.
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Low, who has been charged in Malaysia and the US over allegations that he orchestrated the theft of US$4.5 billion from 1MDB, is believed to be in Macau, although Beijing has denied protecting the fugitive financier.
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