A massive lobbying campaign on behalf of a Russian businesswoman with US ties suffered a major setback over the weekend when a Kuwaiti court sentenced her to 15 years of hard labor on embezzlement charges.
Marsha Lazareva's former firm, Kuwait-based KGL Investment, retained a stable of well-connected former US officials this year to fight accusations that she and her former boss, Saeed Dashti, swindled government investors of proceeds from the sale of property at a former US air base in the Philippines. The pair were arrested in November 2017 but Lazareva was released on bail in May.
