Lawyer jailed for 10 years over multi-million-dollar real estate fraud in Kuwait
Defendant ordered to pay total of KD3m after convicted on swindling KD2m from victims
Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has handed down a 10-year imprisonment sentence to a lawyer on charges of real estate fraud and money laundering, the latest such case disclosed in the country.
The court upheld the sentence earlier passed after trying the lawyer in absentia and ordered him to pay a fine of KD1 million ($3.2 million). Moreover, the criminal court ordered the defendant to return KD2 million. He was convicted on defrauding Kuwaitis in connection to fake projects and swindling KD2 million out of them.
The defendent was put on trial after he was brought from outside the country through the Interpol in the case that involved the sale of phantom apartments inside the country.
Earlier this month, a Kuwaiti court ordered a former government minister be interrogated in connection with property fraud allegations in a different case.
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The court accepted a legal complaint filed by a large group of people against the ex- minister accusing him of real estate fraud and money laundering worth KD100 million purportedly swindled out of them for alleged investment in an hotel overlooking the Holy Mosque in the Saudi city of Mecca, reported Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai.
Previously, the public prosecution had put on hold a complaint lodged against the ex-official and other founders of a real estate company that invests outside Kuwait, according to the report. His name was not given.
The complaint was filed by 160 alleged victims in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Al Qabas newspaper said.
In recent years, Kuwait has stepped up anti-corruption efforts and handed down varying jail sentences to defendants in high-profile cases.
Last month, a former Kuwaiti government minister was sentenced to four years in prison and fined KD400,000 on corruption charges.
A court, tasked with hearing cases involving government officials, also ordered the ex-minister be barred from holding any public post.
Al Qabas identified the ex-official as Mubarak Al Harees, who once served as a minister of services affairs and parliamentary affairs.