OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police arrested the head of the Kazakh Border Guards Services, a powerful military unit, General Nurlan Dzhulamamnov for abuse of power. It’s unclear exactly what the charges are although the arrest will come as a blow to the Border Guards Service already suffering from an image problem linked to bullying and corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Abdrashit Zhukenov and Ali Komekbayev from their posts as the deputy chiefs of the Financial Police and Agency for Civil Service Affairs, part of a strategy to reorganise the agencies in charge of combating corruption.
Mr Nazarbayev has wanted the ministry of finance and the newly-created Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti- Corruption to take over managing corruption cases in a high-profile move aimed at grabbing the attention of international investors who are worried about corruption levels as much as people living inside Kazakhstan.
This year a number of high profile officials have been arrested and charged with corruption.
Muslim Omiraev, former deputy at the ministry of agriculture was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to 10 years in prison (Oct. 16). Earlier in September, police arrested the former governor of Karaganda, Baurzhan Abdishev for corruption. He goes on trial in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Vienna found two former senior members of the Austrian Central Bank’s banknote-printing unit guilty of giving Azerbaijani and Syrian officials kickbacks for contracts.
The verdict confirms that corruption is rampant through even the most senior levels of Azerbaijan.
The two former directors, Johannes Miller and Michael Wolf, each received a two year suspended sentence for their part in a conspiracy to pay around $17.5m over six years to Azerbaijani and Syrian officials in exchange for contracts to print the national currency.
According to a Bloomberg report, the two directors had been ordered to find new business around 2005. They drummed up interest from Azerbaijan but only won the contract to print the Central Bank notes after promising to add an extra 20% kickback to senior officials to be paid through offshore companies.
Azerbaijani officials have previously denied taking bribes from the Austrian Central Bank. Now, though, denying the kickbacks appears all but impossible.
As well as a recent crackdown on human rights and opposition figures, Azerbaijan’s international image is scarred by allegations of major corruption.
Evidence in an Austrian court that business would only be done in Azerbaijan by agreeing kickbacks of 20% is likely to harden this image.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – France is investigating alleged kickbacks during deals between French and Kazakh companies four years ago, the AFP news agency reported quoting a judge on condition of anonymity. The judge said the case was opened in March 2013 and that three people have been charged. The case will be an embarrassment to Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek police arrested the head of Tashkent’s customs department, Colonel Sirojiddin Gulmanov, and his deputies for corruption, media reported, a move linked to a drive by the National Security Service (NSS) to assert control.
Earlier this year around 100 officers at the customs department were arrested and accused of corruption. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, has accused the NSS of being behind her own arrest and various plots to grab power.
An official from the state customs department, though, denied that the arrests of Colonel Gulmanov and his deputies was linked to any larger power play.
“During the investigation, cases of extortion for bribes from people and goods crossing frontiers (were discovered,” he said.
Uzbekistan is in a state of flux. Ms Karimova is under house arrest and media has reported that she will be charged with various economic crimes. Her colleagues have already been charged, found guilty and imprisoned.
She had been tipped to become the next president. Instead, Ms Karimova appears to have lost out in a year- long battle for control against the NSS.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s allies have given it another warning not to pursue political revenge through the courts.
This time the warning came from the European Parliament.
“Georgia will have to overcome the antagonism, polarisation and sense of revenge still present in order to continue its democratic development,” the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said, according to a Reuters report, in a resolution on Georgia.
The US and other European powers have previously handed out similar warnings.
Since relinquishing power last year, Mr Saakashvili has lived in New York. He has been charged in absentia with various misdemeanours. Other members of his cabinet have been charged and found guilty.
There is no love lost between the former government of Mr Saakashvili and the current government led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The two leaders hate each other.
Tension is, it appears, beginning to bubble over in Tbilisi over the issue too.
News reports from the Georgian capital said that extra police have been deployed around the centre of the city to stop rival gangs of youth from clashing.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former BTA Bank official wanted in connection with fraud, to Kazakhstan for prosecution. Mr Kosaev was a colleague of Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently in a French jail. Kazakhstan wants to extradite Mr Ablyazov although rights groups have said that he wouldn’t face a fair trial.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former BTA Bank official wanted in connection with fraud, to Kazakhstan for prosecution. Mr Kosaev was a colleague of Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently in a French jail. Kazakhstan wants to extradite Mr Ablyazov although rights groups have said that he wouldn’t face a fair trial.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – More news stories have emerged to suggest that Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has been charged with various economic crimes.
The most pressing of these are three photos allegedly showing Ms Karimova under house arrest in Tashkent. These were released by her PR agent in London.
In the photos, which are undated, three men in military style fatigues appear to be pushing and pulling a gaunt- looking Ms Karimova. Gone are her designer dresses, and expensive make-up. Instead Ms Karimova wears a tracksuit top and has her hair tied back in a simple bunch.
A statement alongside the photos said they showed that Ms Karimova was staving and that she wouldn’t face a fair trial in Uzbekistan.
“She [Gulnara] is willing to travel to any court where the rule of law is upheld so she can clear her name,” the statement said. “The fact that an Uzbek military court — which sits in secret — has already found her associates to be guilty makes it almost impossible for Gulnara tried fairly in the normal Uzbek judicial process.”
There is, no doubt, a kernel of truth in all this. It’s more difficult to see, though, who is going to come to the aid of Ms Karimova. She is reviled in Uzbekistan, where she was once touted as a successor to her father, and is liked hardly any more outside Uzbekistan.
Ms Karimova has been under house arrest for most of this year. Her close associates have already been jailed for a mix of crimes. Although it’s unclear exactly what Ms Krimova will be charged with, she is probably facing a prison sentence.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An opinion poll in Kazakhstan said that a third of people don’t believe various high profile government campaigns to reduce corruption will have any impact, media reported. Most of the respondents said corruption is too ingrained in the system to be rooted out.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept. 17 2014)