Businesswoman acquitted of real estate fraud & money laundering
KUWAIT CITY, March 18: The Court of Cassation acquitted a businesswoman of real estate fraud and money laundering in a case involving the sale of fake chalets in Khairan. The Court of Appeals had earlier sentenced the accused to five years in prison, and ordered her to pay KD30 million compensation. Attorney Ali Al-Wawan, lawyer for one of the appellants, appeared in court. He reaffirmed his defense argument in both the appeal memorandum and the Court of Cassation, stressing that the elements of fraud crime were not established in the incident. Al-Wawan also pointed out that the elements of money laundering crime were not established, because there was no underlying crime from which the funds were obtained.
He said the dispute was civil and it was governed by the terms of the contracts between the parties. He stated that the Court of Cassation's ruling was based on the 'illuminating truth,' which established the absence of a fraudulent operation and that the incident did not constitute, in any way, a crime of fraud or theft of another's property. In its ruling, the Court of Cassation considered the incident a civil dispute governed by the terms of the contracts between the seller and buyer. 'Although there were some contractual obligations that the seller failed to fulfill in these contracts, the buyer had the right to file a civil suit against the seller, requesting rescission, refund of the amount paid and compensation, if justified,' the court explained. It added 'this led to the denial of the crime of money laundering, since the first crime, fraud, was not established, since the construction of chalets and offering them for sale are considered a real and natural project.'
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