A Kuwaiti court has sentenced Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho and a member of the ruling family to prison over a financial case linked to the Malaysian sovereign fund, according to a copy of the verdict seen by AFP on Wednesday.

According to the text of the ruling issued by the Court of First Instance, the son of the former Kuwaiti prime minister , Sabah Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah, and four partners, including Low Taek Jehu, laundered 343.7 million Kuwaiti dinars (more than 1.1 billion dollars).

The ruling stated that this money was looted from the Malaysian Sovereign Fund.

Launched by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009, this public investment fund is at the center of a wide-ranging corruption scandal.

The case, for which the former leader was sentenced to 12 years in prison, has sparked investigations around the world, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

According to the Kuwaiti court, Sheikh Sabah Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah received funds under a fictitious construction contract, and then the sums were transferred to various accounts, mainly in tax havens, through complex financial operations carried out with the help of his partners.

Sheikh Sabah Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah and his partner, Hamad Al-Wazn, were sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor. The Kuwaiti lawyer, Saud Abdul Mohsen, was sentenced to 7 years in prison, and the expatriate, Muhammad Kiwan, and the Malaysian financier, who were tried in absentia, were sentenced to the same period.

This ruling can still be appealed.

Low Taek Jeho is considered the "mastermind" of the looting.

According to civil lawsuits filed in the United States, more than $4.5 billion was diverted from the Malaysian investment agency between 2009 and 2015 to purchase luxury residences, yachts, works of art and to invest in film productions, including "The Wolf of Wall Street" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.