Swiss courts on Wednesday sentenced two executives of the Swiss-Saudi company PetroSaudi to six and seven years in prison for embezzling $1.8 billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
The Federal Criminal Court has sentenced PetroSaudi CEO Tarek Obaid to seven years in prison and his former right-hand man Patrick Mahony to six years, Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS reported.
The two executives will also have to repay 1MDB approximately $2 billion, with 5 percent of accrued interest from various dates since 2009.
These convictions can be appealed before the Court of Appeal in Bellinzona, the southern Andean city where they were convicted.
They were found guilty of participating in a vast embezzlement scheme orchestrated by Jho Low, an adviser to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, with the latter’s complicity.
The embezzlements are believed to total several billion dollars, of which at least 1.8 billion correspond to the assets of the two men tried in Switzerland for “fraud, aggravated dishonest management and aggravated money laundering.”
➡️ Join El Sol de México’s WhatsApp channel to not miss the most important information
The prosecutor had requested a 10-year prison sentence for Obaid, 48, a dual Swiss-Saudi national, and a 9-year sentence for the Swiss-British Mahony, 47, for acts that spanned at least 2009 to 2015.
The defense requested the acquittal of both, denying any type of fraud.