‘Case to be shelved’
KUWAIT CITY, March 4: Legal sources suggested that the infamous case related to the car rental office would be reserved in the Public Prosecution, and that the case would be closed without referring it to the court, after receiving inquiries from some state agencies about that office’s suspicious money-laundering operations, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The sources justified the expected action to reserve the case by saying, “The office handed over all official invoices from clients to the Public Prosecution, which summoned all the accused and conducted investigations with them”.
They explained that the Public Prosecution did not suspect in its investigations the commission of money laundering crimes in the dealings of the well-known car rental office. The prosecution team, headed by the Director of the Financial Crime Department in the Public Prosecution Hamoud Al-Shami, went to the headquarters of the car rental office in January, and obtained all the documents, after reports were received about money laundering operations.
It is worth mentioning that the defense counsel of the car rental office, who is the Head of the Criminal Law Department at Kuwait University, Dr. Hussein Bouarki affirmed the firmness of the company’s financial position and the integrity of its legal position, denying all the accusations leveled against it.
He said, “The office is subjected to abuse and false news, after it has excelled in the field of distinguished car trade and provided the services at competitive prices. The large number of rumors were raised by some competitors with the aim of harming it. It is not true that the office sells cars at less than the cost price. The cost price is actually much lower than what the competitors say”.
The sources revealed that most car dealerships have become more strict in dealing with cash payments as a result of bank checks on deposits.
They said customers who want to pay the car’s value by cash must prove the source of their funds, adding that for the low brands, it may be acceptable to pay the amount in cash.
Meanwhile, more than eight months after the decision to freeze the funds of the Boutiqaat Company was issued last July, Attorney General Dhirar Al-Asousi decided yesterday to unfreeze the funds and accounts of the company with all local banks.
He ordered the Central Bank of Kuwait to instruct all local banks and the concerned authorities to implement this decision.
In this regard, reliable sources explained that the prosecution will issue its decisions during the course of this month in cases pertaining to money laundering that involve social media celebrities either by reserving the cases or referring them to the criminal panels for consideration.
All the legal attachments to the celebrities’ case files have been completed, and the experts report has been prepared for each of them. It consists of more than 200 pages per person.