(MENAFN) A criminal court in Kuwait has sentenced five individuals, including Malaysian businessman and financier Low Taek Jho, to up to 10 years in prison for their involvement in money laundering cases related to the worldwide Malaysian state fund 1MDB scandal. Two Kuwaiti defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Low was sentenced in absentia. A French businessman of Syrian descent and a Kuwaiti lawyer were also sentenced.
The five individuals were found guilty 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). The 1MDB scandal at the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state investment fund involved the systematic embezzlement of over $4.5 billion under former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Reports indicate that the court's ruling is not final and 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. He and his associates were found guilty of stealing $4.5 billion from 1MDB in a fraud that stretched from Switzerland to the Seychelles.
The stolen money was used for a global shopping spree that included the purchase of a $250-million superyacht, high-end real estate, and Monet and Vincent van Gogh artworks, among other items bought with cash plundered from public coffers. The 1MDB scandal has resulted in several investigations and trials across the world, with several individuals being convicted and sentenced for their involvement in the embezzlement scheme.
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