Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported that a sheikh, his partner and a foreigner were also handed 10-year prison sentences, while a lawyer was sentenced to seven years on money laundering charges in relation to a “Malaysian fund”.

The group has been ordered to return US$1 billion (RM4.4 billion) and has been fined 145 million Kuwaiti dinars (RM2 billion).

Al-Qabas said Kuwaiti public prosecution charged the defendants as an “organised criminal group” which laundered 343.7 million Kuwaiti dinars (about US$1.1 billion) knowing that it was embezzled from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

While the newspaper did not name the Malaysian fund in question, The Sarawak Report stated that it was 1MDB.

Al-Qabas said Kuwaiti public prosecutors had reopened the “frozen” money laundering case after a two-year hiatus, during which it was unable to obtain information from international parties.

It also said investigations showed that about US$1 billion entered the account of a Kuwaiti sheikh and was re-transferred abroad.

Meanwhile, a New York Post report stated that the US$1 billion laundered through Kuwait was paid in Chinese currency so as to stay out of the US banking system “and out of reach of the Justice Department and its investigators”.

Low, who has been charged in Malaysia and the US over allegations that he orchestrated the theft of US$4.5 billion from 1MDB, is believed to be in Macau, although Beijing has denied protecting the fugitive financier.