Kuwait jails money laundering ring, imposes massive $1.3b in penalties

Dubai: A Kuwaiti court has handed down prison sentences and record financial penalties exceeding $1.3 billion after convicting a cross-border money laundering network that used restaurants, taxi companies and currency exchange businesses to disguise illicit funds before transferring large sums abroad.

The State Security Criminal Court sentenced the principal defendants, Kuwaiti nationals and expatriates, to 10 years in prison and imposed fines totalling KD281.9 million, while companies implicated in the scheme were ordered to pay an additional KD140.9 million. 

Other defendants were acquitted after the court found insufficient evidence to support the charges.

According to court documents, the network collected large amounts of cash and funnelled the money through the bank accounts of commercial businesses, including restaurants, taxi firms and exchange houses, in an effort to legitimise the proceeds before moving a significant portion of the funds outside Kuwait.

In a separate but related case, the court sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen and two expatriates to 10 years in prison for operating an illegal hawala money transfer network used to launder KD7 million. The defendants and the companies they represented were also ordered to pay more than KD22.3 million in additional fines.