Tag Archives: corruption

Protests weaken in Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Protests continued in the southern town of Bazar-Korgon against the imprisonment of Omur Tekebayev, head of the Ata-Meken party, for corruption. Media reported that around 50 people holding placards marched through the town. Protests that broke out immediately after Tekebayev’s arrest on Feb. 28 in Bishkek, though, have dissipated. Bazar-Korgon is Mr Tekebayev’s hometown.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Kyrgyz opposition appoints Tekebayev as presidential candidate

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz opposition group Ata- Meken appointed Omur Tekebayev, arrested last week at the airport for alleged corruption around a telecoms deal in 2010, its presidential candidate for an election set for November (March 5). Ata-Meken have said that the corruption allegations against Mr Tekebayev and other members of Ata-Meken were politically motivated.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Kazakh authorities arrest another official

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FEB. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kanat Sultanbekov was sacked as the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan Engineering and then promptly arrested for corruption, an apparent escalation of the crackdown on official corruption in Kazakhstan. Mr Sultanbekov is considered to be part of Kazakhstan’s elite. He has previously been the deputy mayor of both Almaty and Astana, two influential positions. Kazakhstan Engineering is the state-owned maker of military vehicles. Kazakh police have arrested dozens of high- ranking officials for corruption in the past few months, including the former finance minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev.

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Swiss private bank may have failed to stop Uzbek money laundering

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FEB. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swiss prosecutors confirmed that they were investigating the private Geneva-based bank Lombard Odier for failing to prevent money laundering by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former president Islam Karimov.

The investigation is the first time that a Western bank has been directly linked to a bribe-taking racket run by Ms Karimova. She took bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars from telecoms companies looking to access the Uzbek market in 2007/8.

Lombard Odier is one of the oldest and most respected names in Swiss private banking and the investigation may signal the start of a deeper and wider probe into how Western banks have helped, or at least failed to stop, Ms Karimova’s money laundering. So far only the telecoms companies — Telia, Telenor and Vimpelcom — have had their links with Ms Karimova scrutinised.

“The investigations are being made on the basis of information revealed by criminal investigations … into allegations of money laundering involving suspects that include the daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan,” Reuters quoted Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General as saying.

The probe had first been reported by the Bilanz magazine.

Ms Karimova has been under house arrest in Tashkent since 2014 and her closest associates have been jailed.

Lombard Odier also released a statement saying that it was cooperating with the investigation and that it had reported suspicious transactions to the Swiss authorities in 2012.

Before returning to Tashkent at the end of 2013, Ms Karimova had been based in Geneva as Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the UN. After Lombard Odier’s report of suspicious transactions in 2012, the Swiss authorities froze bank accounts linked to her which held 800m Swiss francs ($795m).

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Kazakh court charges ex-economy minister with corruption

ALMATY, FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major blow to Kazakhstan’s image as a business-friendly country, prosecutors charged former economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev with stealing 1b tenge ($3.1m) from a project to build a glass sheet factory.

Mr Bishimbayev, previously seen as one of a group of high-flying members of a new generation of Western-educated Kazakh bureaucrats, is the highest-profile official to be arrested in a crackdown on corruption linked to Baiterek Holding. Baiterek owns stakes in businesses on behalf of the Kazakh government. Before being made economy minister in May 2016,Mr Bishimbayev had been head of Baiterek. He was sacked on Dec.28 2016 and later arrested.

Prosecutors said the 36-year-oldMr Bishimbayev, who had studied at George Washington University under a scheme paid for by the Kazakh government, had received $2m from the scam in theKyzlorda region of southern Kazakhstan.

“Funds were stolen through an affiliated company called Metal Plant Construction under the guise of payment for meals and accommodation of workers,” the anti-corruption office said in a statement.

Metal Plant Construction had supposedly been contracted by OrdaGlass and Shymkenthimmontazh.

For Kazakhstan, the bribe-taking scandal around Baiterek and OrdaGlass is doubly embarrassing as the factory had been touted as proof that cutting-edge factories could operate effectively in Kazakhstan.

Stewart Engineering, a US-based company, had been contracted to help build the glass plant. It has not been linked to the corruption charges. Construction work was started in 2015 but has slowed and the plant has still not been built.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Council of Europe investigates alleged bribery by Azerbaijan

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ordered an investigation into possible bribing of its officials by Azerbaijan.

The allegations focus on Luce Volonte, an Italian former leader of the European People’s Party. Anti- corruption activists have accused him of taking up to 2.4m euros between 2012 and 2014 for setting up a bloc within PACE to boost Azerbaijan’s reputation and dampen attempts to sanction its crackdown on human rights.

Mr Volonte, who is currently being investigated in Italy, has denied the allegations.

In a statement, PACE said that the allegations had damaged its reputation and that it had to act.

“Whether they prove to be founded or false, such allegations undermine the Assembly’s image and credibility as an institution and, in turn, the reputation of each and every one of its members,” it said in a statement.

PACE is one of Europe’s most high profile anti-corruption and pro- democracy bodies.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Tajik officials investigate former Dushanbe mayor for corruption

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-corruption officials in Tajikistan opened an investigation into the former mayor of Dushanbe Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, RFE/RL reported. He was sacked earlier this month. The sacking and investigation, which focuses on a new housing scheme, of Mr Ubaidulloev may signal the start of a power struggle within the Tajik elite. Mr Ubaidulloev had been considered an arch loyalist. Anti- corruption campaigners have said that Tajikistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)f

Uzbek investigators interview Gulnara Karimova

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek prosecutors interviewed Gulnara Karimova at her home in Tashkent, where she is under house arrest, about money laundering, media in Switzerland reported by quoting her lawyer.

This is the first news of Ms Karimova since her father, former Uzbek president Islam Karimov, died in September. In November a report surfaced on opposition news website that she had been poisoned.

The German-language business newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung published an interview with Ms Karimova’s lawyer, Gregoire Mangeat, who said that he had flown to Tashkent for the interviews held on Dec. 9/10.

He said that she was in good health but had been under pressure from the two state prosecutors to admit to various crimes.

“She was very combative and showed an amazing resistance to the arbitrary situation,” he said. “She bravely endured the confrontation with the three Uzbek prosecutors in military uniform. Twice, however, she burst into tears.”

Mr Mangeat also said that Ms Karimova’s living conditions were inhumane and designed to make her crack.

“My client is held in a small annex of her former house in the centre of Tashkent. The rest of the house has decayed,” her said. “Gulnara Karimova is completely isolated.”

Ms Karimova had been viewed as a potential successor to her father but in February 2014, as prosecutors from Europe and the United States started investigating telecoms companies who had paid her bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars for access to the Uzbek market, she was placed under house arrest. Since then, very little has been heard of the once self-style fashion diva, pop star, roaming ambassador and business leader.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakh court cuts Ex-PM jail sentence

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Karaganda, central Kazakhstan, cut an eight year jail sentence handed out to former Kazakh PM Serik Akhmetov for corruption to 1 year and seven months because of an amnesty granted by President Nursultan Nazarbayev last year to mark the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence. Akhmetov had been PM between Sept. 2012 and April 2014. He was convicted in Dec. 2015. Under the new term, he should be due to be released shortly.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Rolls-Royce admits bribing Azeri and Kazakh officials

ALMATY, JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — British engineering company Rolls-Royce, famed for its powerful industrial engines, admitted to prosecutors in the US, Britain and Brazil that it had bribed officials for years to win contracts, including in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

The revelations that one of Britain’s most famous companies bribed their way into contracts will not only damage British industry’s reputation but will also reinforce the reputations of both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan as countries where corruption is rife.

The focus of the corrupt payments was a firm called Unaoil which acted as an intermediary for Rolls-Royce, and other companies, for winning contracts. The prosecution said Rolls-Royce knew that some of the fees they paid to Unaoil and other advisers would be used to bribe officials.

Last year, as reported by The Conway Bulletin, the Monaco-based Unaoil was exposed as acting as an intermediary for a number of Western companies.

In a video statement, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East said corruption at the company was linked to a handful of rogue employees.

“It is apparent that the standards of our business conduct have not lived up to the high standards of our engineering,” he said.

Rolls-Royce has agreed to pay an $800m fine for a so-called Deferred Prosecution Agreement which means that, in return for paying the fine and admitting guilt, criminal proceedings are dropped.

In Kazakhstan the prosecution said Roll-Royce paid out $5.4m to advisers between 2009-12, knowing that some of these fees would be converted into bribes for officials handing out contracts for elements of a gas pipeline between Kazakhstan and China. Rolls-Royce also hired a local distributor in 2012 who they knew was linked to a government official able to influence tenders.

In Azerbaijan Rolls-Royce paid intermediaries who bribed officials on their behalf between 2000-9.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)