The Public Prosecution in Kuwait announced (Tuesday) the recovery of about $232 million, confiscated from the former director of the Social Insurance Institution, Fahd Al-Rajaan, whose name was linked to the case of “embezzlement of insurance funds.”
Al-Rajaan was accused of involvement in the case of “embezzlement of insurance funds,” and a Kuwaiti court issued a sentence against him in absentia to life imprisonment on charges of embezzling public funds and hiding them in accounts abroad. Al-Rajaan died in London on September 6, 2022, at the age of 73, after he had been… He served as Director General of the Foundation for 28 years during the period from 1984 to 2012.
The Kuwaiti Public Prosecution said in a statement: “In order to fulfill its duty to protect public money, it has sent a notification to the Ministry of Justice to transfer 71 million and 757 thousand dinars ($232.5 million) to the public treasury and confiscate it from the two convicts, Fahd Al-Rajaan and Mona Al-Wazzan, in implementation. The ruling issued against them in Case No. 1499 of 2008 restricted public funds.
The case of embezzlement of insurance funds was revealed in 2009, and on May 21, 2012, Al-Rajaan was suspended from work, but he was able to leave the country under the pretext of performing Umrah, and fled to Britain days before a decision was issued to arrest him. On April 12, 2022, the Kuwaiti Fatwa and Legislation Department announced that the Public Institution for Social Insurance’s lawsuit against the former Director General of the Institution, Fahd Al-Rajaan, demands compensation amounting to $874.2 million ($2.83 billion), indicating that the case is still pending before the English courts.
The “Fatwa” added in a parliamentary response that the Insurance Corporation filed its lawsuit before the English courts to demand compensation amounting to 874.2 million US dollars against the former Director General of the Corporation, Fahd Mazyad Al-Rajaan, and 43 others, including banks, institutions, and investment fund managers in Britain, Switzerland, and other countries.
Al-Rajaan faced lawsuits in Kuwait, Britain, and before the Swiss judiciary, and a number of his bank accounts and real estate owned by his family were frozen. On November 15, 2015, the Public Prosecutor referred Al-Rajaan and another “Insurance” official to the judiciary. The Public Prosecution issued an international arrest warrant against Al-Rajaan and ordered his detention in absentia in the case of “causing serious damage to the institution’s funds and seizing public funds.”
Since December 19, 2016, Interpol has included Al-Rajaan’s name in the “Red Notice” in response to the Kuwaiti Public Prosecution’s request to arrest him and extradite him to Kuwait. In February 2016, the British Court of Appeal upheld a request submitted by the Public Prosecution in Kuwait to freeze Al-Rajaan’s accounts and the accounts of his children and wife, and ruled to uphold the freezing decision after pleading with representatives of the judicial authorities in Kuwait