Money-launderers hit abyss

KUWAIT CITY, July 14: The State Security and Terrorism Crimes Court, chaired by Judge Nasser Al-Badr, with Judges Omar Al-Mulaifi, Abdullah Al- Faleh, and Salem Al-Zayed as members, issued verdicts in three cases related to money laundering and State Security crimes, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The verdicts included prison sentences, fines, deportation orders, company closures, and bans preventing convicted individuals from engaging in commercial activities. The first case involved 12 Egyptian defendants and six companies operating in various sectors.

The court convicted the defendants of managing a money laundering network that laundered KD 22.294 million through an alternative money transfer system, using forged company accounts, deposit slips, and invoices for foreign financial transfers. The court acquitted the sixth and eleventh defendants. The court sentenced the first through fifth defendants and the seventh through tenth defendants to ten-year imprisonment with hard labor and fined them KD 44.588 million. The court also imposed a fine of KD 22.294 million on the convicted companies. The twelfth defendant was sentenced to five years in prison and fined KD 6,000 .

All convicted individuals were prohibited from engaging in any commercial activity, their offices were ordered to be permanently closed, and they will be deported after serving their sentences. In another case, the court sentenced an expatriate to five years in prison after convicting him of joining the ISIS terrorist organization and fined him KD 500 for the remaining charges . The court refrained from sentencing a Kuwaiti man and a Kuwaiti woman, placing them on bail of KD 500, and acquitted them of the charge of spreading false news. In the third case, the court sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to five years in prison after convicting him of insulting the Amir and violating the National Unity Law. The court refrained from sentencing two citizens, placing them on bail of KD 500, and ordered the confiscation of the drone seized in the case.