Three officers indicted, sheikh and lawyer on watch list as money laundering crackdown continues in Kuwait
Kuwait operation believed to be bigger than that of Bangladeshi MP Mohammad Shahid Islam
Abu Dhabi: Three Kuwaiti officers have been indicted, while a sheikh and a lawyer are on the intelligence authorities’ radars for connections with a Hezbollah-linked money laundering gang masterminded by an Iranian, local media reported.
Sources told Al Qabas this operation is bigger than that of the Bangladeshi member of parliament, Mohammad Shahid Islam, remanded in custody on charges of human trafficking and money laundering.
The bust of a money laundering gang in Kuwait masterminded by an Iranian in collusion with others, including Kuwaitis, helped disclose the secret of the sudden fortune some social media influencers have made.
In July, Kuwait’s Security agencies arrested the head of a money-laundering network who, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida, is linked to Hezbollah.
After several months of monitoring, tracking, and investigating, authorities raided a chalet in the Bnaider area in Kuwait where the leader of the network lives.
Fuel imports
The leader is an Iranian national married to a Kuwaiti citizen and has apparent ties to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The bust came right after Lebanon’s head of General Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim visited Kuwait to negotiate fuel imports.
Reportedly, two Kuwaitis, a Lebanese, a Bangladeshi and a man without proper documents are also involved in the operation. They allegedly confessed to being the middlemen for their leader but that they had a limited role of buying and selling at his orders.
According to Al Jarida’s sources, the main suspect, identified as Fuad Salhi, has “broad relations with Kuwaiti officials” and “close ties with a number of people convicted in another case.”
As reported, “The operations were being carried out through a bank in the Gulf and the money was being sent to a regional state.”
On the radar
Investigations are ongoing to continue the crackdown to find and prosecute all those involved in the money laundering network, involving a lawyer sheikh and a lawyer. A fourth Kuwaiti officer is also on the radar for connections with the gang.
Apparently, this isn’t the first time the Iran-backed group was linked to a money-laundering operation.
Recently, Al Arabiya TV reported that before he was assassinated, Iraqi researcher Hisham Al Hashimi was going to expose Hezbollah’s money laundering cell in Iraq.
Al Hashimi, a leading Iraqi expert on armed groups, who advised governments and appeared frequently in the media, was shot dead near his home in the capital, Baghdad, on July 6, by two gunmen riding a motorbike.