Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah Explained

Office:Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Primeminister:Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah
Term Start:18 June 2023
Term End:17 January 2024
Predecessor:Abdullah Ali Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah
Successor:Fahad Yusuf Al-Sabah
Order2:2nd
Office2:Asian Handball FederationPresident of the Asian Handball Federation
Term Start2:2 August 1990
Term End2:5 November 2021
Predecessor2:Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
1Blankname2:1st Vice-President
1Namedata2:Yoshihide Watanabe
Order1:2nd
Office1:Olympic Council of AsiaPresident of the Olympic Council of Asia
Term Start1:1 July 1991
Term End1:10 September 2021
Predecessor1:Roy de Silva
Office4:Member of the International Olympic Committee
Term Start4:23 July 1992
Order5:2nd
Office5:Association of National Olympic CommitteesPresident of the Association of National Olympic Committees
Term Start5:13 April 2012
Term End5:28 November 2018
Predecessor5:Mario Vázquez Raña
Order6:25th
Office6:Secretary General of OPECSecretary General of OPEC
Term Start6:1 January 2005
Term End6:31 December 2005
Predecessor6:Purnomo Yusgiantoro
Successor6:Edmund Daukoru
Office7:Minister of Oil of Kuwait
Term Start7:10 February 2002
Term End7:7 February 2006
Primeminister7:Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Predecessor7:Adel Khaled Al-Subaih
Successor7:Ahmad Al Abdullah Al Sabah
Birth Date:1963 8, df=yes[1]
Birth Place:Beirut, Lebanon
Father:Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Nationality:Kuwaiti
Occupation:Politician
Sports administrator
Alma Mater:Kuwait University
Native Name Lang:ar

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (Arabic: أحمد الفهد الأحمد الجابر الصباح; born 12 August 1963), also known as Ahmad Al-Fahad, is a controversial Kuwaiti politician, ruling family member, and disgraced former sports administrator.

His career has been marred by controversy, including a fraud conviction in a Swiss court on 10 September 2021. This led to his resignation from the Olympic Council of Asia, where he previously served as president, and his suspension from the International Olympic Committee.[2] His involvement in the Olympic Council of Asia and International Olympic Committee extended until 2023 when he was banned due to election interference.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Additionally, he was a member of the FIFA Council from 2015 to 2017 but resigned following his implication in the FIFA bribery scandal.[8]

Education and career

Government Service

Ahmed was educated at Kuwait University and the Kuwait Military Academy, and attained the rank of major in the Kuwaiti Army.

He was appointed Kuwait's minister of information in 2000, and acting minister of oil in 2001. In February 2002, he was appointed minister of oil.[9] After Emir Sheikh Jaber died and Sheikh Sabah became Emir, he remained at that position under Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed's government. Ahmed served as Secretary General of OPEC in 2005,[10] and was appointed the director of the National Security Agency in July 2006.

In June 2011, then deputy prime minister and minister of housing affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad resigned in order to avoid grilling by MPs Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Adel Al-Saraawi over alleged misconduct in government contracts.[11]

On 18 June 2023, Ahmad was appointed Kuwait's Minister of Defense.[12] He held this position until 17 January 2024.

Sports

Ahmed has undertaken numerous sporting positions and was the president of the Olympic Council of Asia from 1991 to 2022, a member of the IOC since 1992, was the president of the Kuwait Olympic Committee, chairman of the Afro Asian Games Council, vice president of the International Handball Federation, president of Asian Handball Federation, senior vice president of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, honorary president of several Kuwaiti, Arab and Asian clubs and was also a member of International Relations and Olympic Solidarity Commission of the IOC.

He also served as coach of the Kuwait national football team. After a failed Asian Cup qualifying campaign in 2006 he launched a tirade against group-winners, Australia, claiming that the AFC should revoke their admission to the Asian continental competition.[13]

Ahmed served as the president of the Association of National Olympic Committees from April 2012 until November 2018, when he resigned following charges of fraud in Switzerland. During his presidency, he implemented a statistical system for athletes, which was developed under the advice of Charles E. Milander.[14]

Controversy

Corruption allegations (2011)

In November 2010, Sheikh Ahmad was accused in parliament by MP Adel Al-Saraawi of running an unauthorised, parallel Kuwaiti government. The accusations that Sheikh Ahmad controlled parts of the government that lay outside his responsibility were fuelled by the fact that his brother Sheikh Athbi Al-Fahad Al-Sabah became head of the Kuwait State Security apparatus.[15] In March 2011, MPs aligned with former Kuwait prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed (Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Adel Al-Saraawi) in Kuwait's National Assembly threatened to grill Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, then deputy prime minister, over misconduct in government contracts, leading to Ahmad's resignation from government in June 2011.[16] [17]

Legal issues

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.[18] Ahmad Al-Fahad appeared on local channel Al-Watan TV describing his claims.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] [24]

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.[25]

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.[26] Shortly thereafter, Ahmed temporarily stepped aside from his role at the International Olympic Committee, pending an ethics committee hearing into the allegations.[27]

On August 30, 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.[28] [29]

On September 10, 2021, Sheikh Ahmed was convicted for 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.[30] [31] [32] The Geneva Court of Appeal upheld Ahmad's conviction on December 18, 2023. This decision was publicly announced on January 18, 2024, following the conclusion of his tenure as Minister of Defence, which ended the previous day.[33]

International sports corruption

FIFA bribery allegations and resignation

In April 2017, Ahmed resigned from the FIFA Council after being implicated by a member of the FIFA audit committee from Guam, Richard Lai, who pleaded guilty in a US court to taking $950,000 in bribes from the Olympic Council of Asia.[34]

In his guilty plea, Lai said he understood "co-conspirator 2" identified as Sheikh Ahmed was the source of the bribes. This amount "included $750,000 in wire transfers from Kuwaiti accounts controlled by "co-conspirator 3 or his assistants," believed to be Hussain Al-Musallam, "the right-hand man to Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah" according to a report from The Times, to influence key appointments in regional and international soccer bodies.[35] [36] Ahmed "vigorously" denied any wrongdoing.[37]

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.[38]

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.[39] 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."[40]

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.”[41] 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. On 13 October 2023, the IOC ethics commission told the OCA that its 2023 elections must be annulled due to Sheikh Ahmad's interference and that his brother's candidacy “should have been declared ineligible from the outset”.[42]

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.[43]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bayle . Emmanuel . Clastres . Patrick . Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management . 2018 . Palgrave Macmillan . 3319767526 . 1.
  2. News: Panja . Tariq . 10 September 2021 . Olympics Power Broker Convicted in Forgery Case . .
  3. Web site: 2021-06-28 . Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad AL-SABAH - Kuwait Olympic Committee (Suspension provisionally lifted by the IOC EB on 16 August 2018), IOC Member since 1992 . 2021-09-08 . International Olympic Committee . en.
  4. News: 2023-07-27 . IOC bans Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad for three years, refuses to recognise OCA election . en . Reuters . 2023-07-27.
  5. Web site: OCA President closes 18th Asian Games, China overall champion. Antara News. en. 25 August 2019.
  6. Book: The Politicisation of Sport in Modern China: Communists and Champions. Hong. Fan. Zhouxiang. Lu. 16 July 2015. Routledge. 9781317980117. en.
  7. Web site: 10 September 2021. Sheikh Ahmad found guilty of forgery in Geneva court. 2021-09-12. www.insidethegames.biz.
  8. Web site: Fifa: Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah resigns following denial of any wrongdoing. 30 April 2017. BBC.
  9. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=20020211&id=bkxWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9OsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4228,2901021 Kuwaiti oil minister resigns
  10. Web site: Secretaries General of OPEC 1961–2008 . OPEC . 26 January 2017.
  11. Web site: News Summary Report 상세보기News Summary ReportEmbassy of the Republic of Korea to the State of Kuwait. 2020-10-17. overseas.mofa.go.kr.
  12. News: 2023-06-18 . Kuwait forms cabinet with new oil minister, finance minister re-appointed . en . Reuters . 2023-07-02.
  13. Web site: Socceroos should be thrown out of Asia: Kuwait. 2006-12-11. ABC News. en-AU. 2019-08-25.
  14. http://www.acnolympic.org/about-anoc/history-of-anoc/ History of ANOC
  15. News: 1 December 2010 . Kuwait: The political scene: Sheikh Ahmed is accused of running his own government . .
  16. Web site: Diwan . Kristin Smith . Kuwait's constitutional showdown . 17 October 2020 . Foreign Policy . en-US.
  17. News: 9 June 2011 . Kuwait's deputy prime minister resigns - TV . en . Reuters . 17 October 2020.
  18. News: 18 March 2015 . 'Fake' video tape ends Kuwait coup investigation . en-GB . BBC News . 2020-10-17.
  19. Web site: فيديو: أحمد الفهد الصباح عبر قناة الوطن: يشرح قصة (الشريط) وكيف تعامل معه: وصلني من مصدر مجهول ! . 17 October 2020 . مدونة الزيادي . ar.
  20. Web site: Kuwait orders media blackout on 'coup' video . 17 October 2020 . www.aljazeera.com . en.
  21. News: 2024-01-22 . Olympic member Sheikh Ahmad has conviction for forgery upheld on appeal though won't serve jail time . 2024-01-26 . Washington Post . en-US . 0190-8286.
  22. News: 19 November 2018 . Indicted Kuwaiti Sheikh Steps Aside From I.O.C. (Published 2018) . en-US . The New York Times . The Associated . 17 October 2020 . 0362-4331.
  23. Web site: Kuwaiti royals jailed after appeal in social media case fails . 17 October 2020 . ArabianBusiness.com . en.
  24. News: 2016-05-31 . Three members of the Kuwaiti royal family have been jailed for insulting judges in WhatsApp messages . 2023-12-24 . The Independent . en.
  25. News: 26 January 2016 . Kuwaiti court overturns conviction of ruling family member - media . pt . Reuters . dead . 17 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201020024549/https://br.reuters.com/article/uk-kuwait-trial-sheikhahmad-idUKKCN0V411W . 20 October 2020.
  26. Web site: 17 November 2018 . Powerful Kuwaiti IOC member to be tried in Switzerland for forgery . 17 October 2020 . France 24 . en.
  27. Web site: 19 November 2018 . Sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah stands down from IOC amid forgery allegations . 20 October 2020 . The Guardian . en.
  28. Web site: 2021-08-30 . Trial of Olympic sheikh on forgery charges opens in Geneva . 2021-08-31 . AP NEWS . en.
  29. Web site: Olympic official quizzed for 5 hours in Geneva forgery trial . 2021-09-01 . ABC News . en.
  30. News: Farge . Emma . 10 September 2021 . Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad convicted of forgery in Geneva trial . .
  31. Web site: 2023-07-08 . Sheikh Talal replaces his suspended brother, keeps Asian Olympic leadership in Al Sabah family . 2023-07-15 . AP News . en.
  32. News: 2023-07-07 . IOC warns convicted Kuwaiti sheikh against getting involved in Asian Olympic election . en-US . Washington Post . 2023-07-15 . 0190-8286.
  33. News: 2024-01-19 . Faux arbitrage et vidéo truquée – La justice genevoise condamne un puissant cheikh koweïtien . 2024-01-19 . Tribune de Genève . fr.
  34. Web site: 2017-11-21. Three Fifa officials banned from football for life over corruption charges. https://web.archive.org/web/20201018114520/https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/fifa-corruption-richard-lai-julio-rocha-rafael-esquivel-banned-life-pleaded-guilty-corrupt-scandal-investigation-a8066981.html . 2020-10-18 . limited . live. 2020-10-17. The Independent. en.
  35. News: Powerful Sheikh Linked to Sports Corruption Case Resurfaces in Prague. Tariq. Panja. The New York Times . 3 November 2017. NYTimes.com.
  36. News: Reporter. Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports. Senior swimming executive implicated in Fifa bribery scandal. . en. 2020-10-17. 0140-0460.
  37. News: Fifa official Sheikh Ahmad resigns. en-GB. BBC Sport. 2020-10-17.
  38. News: Rosen . Armin . 30 August 2023 . Qatar’s World Cup FIFA Bribe Documents Exposed . Tablet Magazine .
  39. Web site: Haroun. Azmi. The DOJ is investigating two senior Kuwaiti Olympic officials for bribery and racketeering related to FIFA probe. 2021-09-03. Business Insider. en.
  40. Web site: Documents show US investigation of 2 Kuwaitis in FIFA case. 2021-09-02. Summer Games Olympics 2020. en.
  41. News: 7 July 2023 . IOC warns convicted Kuwaiti sheikh against getting involved in Asian Olympic election . AP News.
  42. News: 2023-10-13 . OCA elections must be invalid over Sheikh Ahmad interference, Olympic Committee ethics chief says . 2023-10-13 . Reuters . en.
  43. News: 2024-05-04 . IOC imposes 15-year ban on former Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait . 2024-05-04 . AP News . en.