The State Security and Terrorism Crimes Court acquitted a Kuwaiti woman of charges that she laundered approximately KD 7.5 million, engaged in unlicensed economic activity and harmed national interests in the matter known as the alternative money transfers case. Defense lawyer Bader Mohammad Al-Dalak told the court that the accusations lacked any legal foundation and that his client had no involvement in the activities under investigation. The ruling was delivered on July 25, 2026 after examination of the evidence presented during the proceedings.
The same court convicted two other defendants in the case and sentenced each to 10 years in prison with hard labor plus substantial fines after determining that the charges against them had been proven. Court records list the convictions as separate from the acquittal granted to the woman. The case centered on operations that allegedly moved funds outside regulated financial channels.
The alternative money transfers case forms part of sustained official focus on informal remittance networks operating in Kuwait. The Central Bank of Kuwait has identified unlicensed transfer services as a recurring vulnerability in its financial stability assessments issued over the past decade. Data compiled by the bank shows that such networks frequently handle cross-border payments that bypass standard compliance controls.
Kuwait’s Financial Intelligence Unit has documented a rise in suspicious transaction reports linked to alternative remittance methods in its annual summaries. The unit’s figures indicate that these reports often involve sums transferred without proper licensing or customer verification records. Unit assessments have repeatedly urged tighter oversight of informal financial channels to reduce exposure to illicit flows.
Al-Dalak argued that prosecutors failed to produce evidence tying the woman to any of the transfers in question. The court accepted the defense position and entered a full acquittal on the three counts. Judicial statistics maintained by the Public Prosecution reflect that acquittals in financial crime matters typically follow when links between defendants and specific transactions cannot be established.
The Public Prosecution initiated the proceedings before the specialized court because the alleged operations carried potential consequences for economic security. Similar alternative transfer investigations have produced convictions when documentation demonstrated direct participation in unlicensed activity according to summaries published by the Ministry of Justice. The July 25 outcome contributes to the evolving legal framework governing enforcement in this area.
