Two men involved in the 1MDB case — Malaysian sovereign wealth fund scandal — have been imprisoned in Abu Dhabi, UAE, for committing financial crimes. The report is based on testimonies from UAE’s criminal court and sources familiar with the case.

Khadem al Qubaisi, a resident of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), formerly led Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company. Qubaisi was sentenced to 15-years in prison and Mohammed Badawy al Husseiny, a citizen of America who supervised a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), was sentenced to 10 years.

The Emirati judiciary body also ordered them to jointly pay about $336 million, 50% to IPIC, which is the “victim company,” and rest 50% as a penalty. The identities of the convicted were not revealed in the press, but internal sources confirmed that the defendants were Khadem al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny.

In a statement released by the Abu Dhabi court, Al Qubaisi was referred to as the “first defendant,” and was charged for “exploiting his job and unlawfully appropriating 149 million euros after selling shares he owns for the company he heads, without disclosing his ownership of the shares, for 210 million euros,” The Wall Street Journal wrote.

However, the sources have further claimed that the conviction wasn’t related to the 1MDB scandal. According to the statement, the trail was related to an investigation by the Abu Dhabi Public Funds Prosecution for suspicions of corruption.

In January, Al Qubaisi was interviewed by the WSJ from Al Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi, where he disclosed that he was being wrongly blamed as the “scapegoat” to whitewash UAE’s role in the 1MDB scandal. It was alleged by the Justice Department that $4.5 billion was stolen from the Malaysian state fund and used by a number of co-conspirators, including Al Qubaisi and Al Husseiny.

“I did this deal but I did it on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi,” Al Qubaisi said. He also revealed that he was being pressurized to turn over assets to Mansour bin Zayed, former chairman of IPIC and brother of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Now “they are putting everything on my back,” he added.

Al Qubaisi also said that his hands were tied to a window in a corridor for over 24 hours, suggesting prison torture by the UAE authorities.

The sudden arrest of the two convicted could also mean that UAE’s royal family is trying to take them out of public sight and avoid getting exposed.

Source