Kuwait court sentences Jho Low to 10 years imprisonment in absentia

 

A court in Kuwait has convicted businessperson Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in absentia yesterday for money laundering charges in relation to the 1MDB scandal, according to reports.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported that a sheikh, his partner, and two foreigners have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, while a lawyer was sentenced to seven years, on money laundering charges involving a Malaysian fund.

They were also ordered to return US$1 billion (RM4.4 billion) in addition to paying fines totalling KD145 million (RM2 billion).

The newspaper did not name the sheikh, his partner nor the lawyer, and only mentioned it as a “Malaysian fund”, saying it was the largest money laundering case. It did identify the foreigners as Low and the Syrian-French businessperson Bachar Kiwan.

The whistleblower site Sarawak Report, meanwhile, said the Malaysian fund in question was 1MDB.

It also identified the sheikh as Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who is the son of a former Kuwaiti prime minister. His partner was identified as Low’s associate Hamad Al Wazan, and the lawyer as Saud Abdelmohsan.

Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah

According to Al-Qabas, the five were accused of laundering Chinese currency equivalent to KD343,700,000 (RM4.95 billion) knowing they were illegal proceeds embezzled from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

‘Lack of Malaysian cooperation’

Al-Qabas also reported that the case had been on hold for two years before being reopened because prosecutors faced hurdles in obtaining information from abroad.

The report did not describe the nature of those difficulties or who was involved, but Sarawak Report said it points to a lack of cooperation from Malaysia.

“Sarawak Report is reliably informed that Kuwait received no useful collaboration from the Malaysians during this period in terms of seeking to return the nation’s stolen billions.

“Sarawak Report can only surmise that the failure to act on this matter by Malaysia owed directly to the desire of (former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak) and his BN allies who were propping up the Muhyiddin Yassin government to cover up this further evidence of corruption by Najib.

“This lack of meaningful collaboration has apparently continued till this day, leaving the Kuwaiti authorities to proceed with this case without Malaysian cooperation and indeed without Malaysia having made a proper claim on the money it is owed,” it said.

“Indeed, reports in the Kuwait media today (Tuesday) make clear that this is the case, leading to a clear exasperation on the part of the Kuwait authorities at the ‘failure to receive information from international parties’ (for which read lack of cooperation from Malaysia),” it added.

Money trail

In 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that Malaysian investigators had uncovered a money trail from China to a Chinese bank in Kuwait and onward to a Cayman Islands entity controlled by Low, which was used to pay nearly US$1 billion for Low-controlled assets in Malaysia to pay some 1MDB debts.

The transactions were conducted in Chinese yuan, reportedly to evade scrutiny from US authorities who were already investigating his activities.

Low had denied wrongdoing, but thus far has not commented on the WSJ report.

Last year, the Kuwait-born Bachar told Malaysiakini he had offered to assist the MACC in its investigations, but the latter was dragging its feet.

Low had allegedly used Bachar’s company Al Waseet to launder money. Bachar said when he refused to comply, Kuwaiti officials persecuted him, his family and partners, forcing him to flee the country to France.

He said he believes that the funds were commissions Low received from a Chinese firm engaged in big infrastructure projects in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, when asked at the time to confirm the correspondence between the MACC and Bachar, its deputy commissioner Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya replied, “You have to understand, during the MCO (movement control order), during a pandemic, it's quite hard for us to go overseas.

“Through email (and other forms of communication), we will (do so),” he said, while suggesting that reporting on the matter could jeopardise investigations. - Mkini