Kuwait-UK agree to restore embezzled funds

Kuwait and Britain have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish joint strategic dialogue as well as an agreement on restoring the funds recovered by London and which had been embezzled from the Kuwait Health Office.

This came during the 19th session of the UK-Kuwait Joint Steering Group held on Tuesday in Kuwait, according to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

The meeting was chaired by Kuwait’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, and the British Minister of State for Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and the United Nations at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Lord Tariq Ahmad, as reported by the official news site.

In January 2021, the Kuwaiti Criminal Court sentenced four employees working at the Kuwait Health Office in London to life imprisonment on charges of embezzling large sums of money over varying periods. They were all European citizens.

The court fined the defendants twice the value of the embezzled amount £11 million ($13.3 million).

During Tuesday’s meeting, the officials discussed means of cooperation in the field of combating corruption, in addition to the possibility of cooperation in development programmes related to energy transition, climate, environment and food security, and support for training programmes established by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

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