KUWAIT CITY, Nov 12: Marsha Lazareva, and her former boss Saeed Dashti whose family owns the Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Co (KGL) and related investment and shipping businesses, were Sunday convicted of failing to deliver the cash that Kuwaiti government investors said were due from the sale of property at a former US air base in the Philippines to a Filipino- Chinese investment group.

They have been sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay fines, reports Inquirer.com quoting Al-Rai daily. They were also accused by Kuwaiti prosecutors of charging the government’s port authority for services they didn’t provide; but that case is still pending. In both cases, Lazareva and Dashti deny any wrongdoing.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign ministry have questioned her prosecution and called on Kuwait’s His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- Jaber Al-Sabah to order Lazareva’s release. Marsha Lazareva, a Russian citizen with a Wharton MBA, has been exerting efforts to clear her