KUWAIT CITY, July 3: A court in Los Angeles County has begun considering the new lawsuit filed by the Kuwaiti government against former Defense Minister Khaled Al-Jarrah in the framework of the “Army Fund” case, reports Al-Rai daily. According to the report published by the American “law360” website, which specializes in judicial affairs, the start of consideration of the case came after the lawsuit was filed on May 20, that is, weeks after a ruling was issued by the Kuwaiti Court of Ministers acquitting former Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- Mubarak, Al-Jarrah and others of the criminal offenses related to the allegations themselves. The case is still pending before the Kuwaiti judiciary, as the ruling of the Court of Ministers was issued on March 8, while the Prosecution appealed the verdict on March 27, and the Court of Cassation set July 17 to look into the case.

New lawsuit
According to a report by the US news website c9news.upexampaper, the new lawsuit, which was “formally filed on May 20 with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, focuses primarily on Khaled Al-Jarrah, who served as Defense Minister from 2013 to 2017.” The context of the lawsuit suggested that the money that was pumped into luxury real estate in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the American city of Los Angeles was Kuwaiti public money.

On this basis, the State of Kuwait has the right to recover the amount that will be proven by the trial, but not less than 104 million dollars. “This lawsuit represents the latest development in the context of a long and complex story relating to one of the most prominent real estate investments in prestigious Beverly Hills, Southern California, and it re-highlights the prominent place occupied by luxury real estate deals in Los Angeles among the machinations of the global elite,” the report noted.

It is a real estate investment in which Al-Jarrah had pumped about $160 million, but later discovered that he had been deceived and had sold the mortgage without his knowledge, so he resorted to the American judiciary to demand the refund of the money he had pumped. So far, US courts have not agreed to Jarrah’s allegations. In November 2020, a federal judge denied his request to send the property into receivership, ruling that he “did not provide sufficient evidence to support his account.” Another hearing on Al-Jarrah’s lawsuit is scheduled to take place in October.