Swiss fraud conviction Fake coup video In December 2013, allies of Ahmad Al-Fahad claimed to possess tapes purportedly showing that Nasser Al-Mohammed and former Parliament Speaker
Jassem Al-Kharafi were discussing plans to topple the Kuwaiti government. In April 2014 the Kuwaiti public prosecutor launched an investigation into the alleged coup videos and imposed a total
media blackout to ban any reporting or discussion on the issue. To convince the public prosecutor of the videos’ legitimacy, Ahmad and his team created a false legal dispute in Switzerland, involving the backdating of documents and a shell company in Delaware under their control. This staged arbitration, later revealed to be fraudulent in
Swiss criminal proceedings, was then presented to the High Court in London as part of the process to verify the videos. In March 2015, Kuwait's public prosecutor dropped all investigations into the alleged coup plot and Ahmad Al-Fahad read a public apology on Kuwait state television renouncing the coup allegations. Concurrently,
Athbi Al-Fahad, his sibling and former head of state security, together with individuals known as the "
Fintas Group," engaged in a disinformation effort. They created and distributed a grainy, fabricated video that falsely depicted the head of the constitutional court accepting a bribe, insinuating that this act influenced the Public Prosecutor’s decision to cease the investigation. In the aftermath, Athbi Al-Fahad and the members of the Fintas Group faced legal proceedings and were convicted by a criminal court for their roles in these activities. In December 2015, Ahmad was convicted of "disrespect to the public prosecutor and attributing a remark to the country’s ruler without a special permission from the emir’s court," issued a suspended six-month prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinar. In January 2016, the Kuwaiti appeals court overturned the prior ruling and cleared Ahmed of all charges.
Swiss criminal trial In November 2018, Ahmed, along with four others, was charged in Switzerland with
forgery related to staging a sham arbitration in Switzerland to authenticate the
fake video purporting to show a coup plot in Kuwait, after a criminal complaint put forth by lawyers representing Nasser Al-Mohammad and Jassem Al-Kharafi. Shortly thereafter, Ahmed temporarily stepped aside from his role at the
International Olympic Committee, pending an ethics committee hearing into the allegations. On 30 August 2021, Ahmed attended court alongside three of the other four defendants: Hamad Al-Haroun (Ahmed's Kuwaiti former aide) and Geneva-based lawyers from Bulgaria and Ukraine. A fifth defendant, English lawyer
Matthew Parish, was not in court and was
tried in absentia. On 10 September 2021, Sheikh Ahmed was convicted of forgery along with the four other defendants. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison, half of it suspended. He denied wrongdoing and appealed his conviction. The Geneva Court of Appeal upheld Ahmad's conviction on 18 December 2023. This decision was publicly announced on 18 January 2024, following the conclusion of his tenure as Minister of Defence, which ended the previous day. In his guilty plea, Lai said he understood "co-conspirator 2" identified as Sheikh Ahmed was the source of the bribes. Ahmed :vigorously: denied any wrongdoing. In August 2023, US court documents implicated Sheikh Ahmad, his brother Dhari Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, and close associate Husain Al-Musallam in a bribery and racketeering scheme connected to the State of Qatar. Additionally, a shell company named
Beriza Limited, also mentioned in the documents, is suspected of being controlled by Ahmad. This suspicion arises particularly because the company later made payments to Ahmad’s lawyer Matthew Parish in relation to a
fraudulent arbitration case, leading to criminal convictions for both Ahmad and Parish. Bank statements from the Qatari embassy in London indicate that these entities received millions of dollars from Qatar. These funds are alleged to have been used as bribes to influence FIFA officials in support of Qatar's bid to host the World Cup.
U.S. Department of Justice investigation In September 2021, the Associated Press reported that Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and Hussain Al-Musallam have been targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected racketeering and bribery related to FIFA and international soccer politics. According to the AP, in 2017, the US embassy in Kuwait formally requested evidence from the country, including bank account information for the two officials, who have been identified as potential co-conspirators. American prosecutors "told their Kuwaiti counterparts they wanted to establish if the suspects made other payments to [Richard] Lai, or if their accounts were used to wire possible bribe payments to other soccer officials."
IOC ban and Olympic Council of Asia election interference In July 2023 the head of the IOC ethics commission sent letters to Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad warning him against getting involved in upcoming Olympic Council of Asia elections in Bangkok. The letters urged him to reconsider going to Bangkok "to avoid any type of interference with the Olympic Movement’s activities." On 27 July 2023, the International Olympic Committee banned Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad for 3 years, approving the recommendation of its ethics committee which found that Sheikh Ahmad had an "undeniable impact" on the OCA elections in support of his brother Talal Al-Fahad's candidacy. In May 2024, following the upholding of his Swiss fraud conviction in December 2023, Sheikh Ahmad was banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for 15 years, commencing from the start of his initial three-year ban. The IOC cited "a betrayal of his oath as an IOC Member and the severity of the harm to the IOC's reputation" as reasons for the extended suspension. == See also ==