Commerce Employee Gets 15 Years; Egyptian Woman, Husband Jailed 10 Years in Kuwait's Multi-Million Dinar Raffle Scam

KUWAIT CITY, July 15: Kuwait's Court of Appeal has issued its final ruling in one of the country's largest commercial raffle manipulation and money laundering cases, sentencing multiple defendants to lengthy prison terms, imposing millions of dinars in fines, and convicting those involved in bribery, forgery, and organized fraud linked to commercial prize draws.

The case was heard by the Court of Appeal headed by Counselor Abdullah Al-Sane, with Counselors Saud Al-Mutairi and Bassam Al-Ghuainim serving as panel members.

The court increased the prison sentence of a Ministry of Commerce employee from 10 years to 15 years and fined him KD 3 million after convicting him of bribery, money laundering, forgery, and abusing his public office as part of an organized criminal network.

The court also sentenced an Egyptian woman, her husband, and 15 other defendants to 10 years' imprisonment each and imposed KD 3 million fines on each after finding them guilty of participating in the organized scheme.

In addition, four defendants were sentenced to four years in prison for offenses including bribery, forgery, and manipulating the results of commercial raffle draws.

According to court documents, the criminal network manipulated the outcomes of 110 commercial raffle draws, involving 96 motor vehicles, cash prizes, valuable in-kind rewards, and travel tickets, enabling predetermined winners to receive prizes through fraudulent means.

The court also ruled to refrain from punishing 38 defendants, while 13 others were acquitted of the charges against them.

In its reasoning, the Court of Appeal described the first defendant, the Ministry of Commerce employee, as the central figure in an organized criminal group responsible for committing a series of serious offenses.

The court found that he accepted bribes totaling approximately KD 282,000, engaged in money laundering, forged official documents, and exploited his government position to manipulate raffle systems for the benefit of the criminal network.

The ruling stated that the crimes targeted the integrity of public office, undermined trust in official documents and government systems, and harmed the public interest by compromising the credibility and transparency of commercial prize draws.

The verdict effectively brings to a close one of Kuwait's most significant prosecutions involving corruption, raffle manipulation, bribery, forgery, and money laundering.