Tag Archives: corruption

Armenia investigates former president Sargsyan for corruption

YEREVAN/Dec. 4 (The Bulletin) –The authorities in Armenia said they had opened an investigation into former leader Serzh Sargsyan for embezzling 490m dram ($1m) from a tender in 2013.

Mr Sargsyan, president and PM in Armenia for 10 years until he was overthrown in a revolution last year, is accused of meddling with a fuel supply tender for farmers that he ensured went to a company owned by a friend of his.

The charges surprised analysts who had said that Mr Sargsyan may have avoided charges levied against his former colleagues because, although he is widely considered to have presided over a corrupt government and system, PM Nikol Pashinyan wanted to protect him from prosecution as a payoff for voluntarily giving up power in the revolution of 2018.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Court case begins against TBC Bank founders in Georgia

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DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — The court case against TBC Bank founder Mamuka Khazarde and his deputy Badri Japaridze for corruption and money laundering began in Tbilisi. Both men deny the charges which they have said are politically motivated. TBC Bank is one of Georgia’s biggest banks and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kyrgyz corruption report triggers protests

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BISHKEK/NOV. 26 — Hundreds of people protested in Bishkek against corruption after a report published by activists accused senior customs officials of taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chanting “power to the people”, demonstrators waved a cartoon of former customs service chief Raimbek Matraimov who, the authors of the report said, was at the head of the corruption scheme. The demonstrators want him prosecuted and the resignation of the heads of the National Security Committee and the anti-corruption service.

Street level politics and demonstrations are a real force in Kyrgyzstan where revolutions in 2005 and 2010 overthrew governments considered corrupt.

In response to the protests, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov convened a meeting of the National Security Committee. His administration also put out a statement distancing him from any foul play.

But corruption is endemic in Kyrgyzstan, as the report, entitled: “Plunder and patronage in the heart of Central Asia”, described.

“Evidence tells the story of how a vast underground cargo empire run by the Abdukadyrs, a secretive Uyghur clan, systematically funnelled massive bribes to Kyrgyzstan’s customs service,” it said. “It also implicates Raimbek Matraimov, a former top customs official widely seen as so powerful that he is essentially untouchable.”

Central to the report was the evidence of Aierken Saimaiti, an ethnic Uyghur. He was shot dead on Nov. 10 in Istanbul. Before his murder, Saimaiti had told journalists that he had laundered $700m out of Kyrgyzstan.

On Nov. 29, security officials in Bishkek arrested Erkin Sopokov, the former Kyrgyz envoy in Istanbul. His car was found near where Saimaiti had been shot dead.

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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

TBC Bank chairman and founder charged with money laundering

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TBILISI/July 24 (The Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Georgia charged the chairman and deputy chairman of TBC Bank, the country’s biggest bank, with money laundering.

Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of TBC Bank and chairman of the corporation that owns the bank, and deputy chairman Badri Japaridze denied the charges and said that they were politically motivated.

Prosecutors have been investigating the two men since August last year over payments made through TBC Bank in 2007 and 2008.

They said that there was now enough evidence to charge them with laundering $16.6m “followed by a gain of particular large amounts of income”.

On the London Stock Exchange, TBC’s shares fell more than 11% to a five-month low.
In response, TBC Bank said that Mr Khazaradze and Mr Japaridze had resigned from TBC Bank Group PLC, the company that owns TBC Bank.

Mr Khazaradze had also quit as chairman of the banking unit earlier this year, when news of the investigation became public.

“The Board has full confidence in the integrity of Mr Khazaradze and Mr Japaridze and looks forward to the gentlemen quickly and fully clearing their names of any claims, including alleged money laundering,” TBC said in a statement.

The outspoken Mr Khazaradze, one of Georgia’s most recognisable businessmen, is known to have clashed with Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia and the power behind the Georgian Dream Coalition government. He has also threatened to go into politics against Mr Ivanishvili and his supporters have said that the money laundering charges are a form of punishment.

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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on July 25 2019

Tajik court jails policeman for torture

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FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan jailed a policeman for 13 years for a series of crimes, including torture, in a rare case that highlights corruption and abuse of power in the security forces in Central Asia. AFP reported that a closed court in the northern city of Khujand jailed Shukhrat Shamsiddinov at the end of January for torturing and extorting money from Komil Khodjanazarov, detained in 2017 for belonging to a banned group. Khodjanazarov was released from detention but killed himself when he was summoned to return to the police station for questioning. Human rights activists say torture is rife in Tajik prisons.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Georgian municipal head arrested for corruption

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JAN. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested Grigol Ivaneishvili, head of the Tskaltubo Municipality, for demanding a bribe of 250,000 lira ($95,000) in exchange for agreeing to sell the main municipal building. Georgia has won accolades for stamping out corruption over the past 15 years or so although activists have said that there is still much work to do.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Germany punishes MP for taking Azerbaijani money

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JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Karin Strenz, a German MP from the ruling Christian Democratic Party, has become the first parliamentarian to be punished by his/her home country for taking cash and gifts from Azerbaijan between 2012-14, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

HRW said that on Jan. 18 Germany’s Bundestag had ruled that Ms Strenz had broken parliamentary rules in a “cash-for-lobbying” scandal that has been dubbed by anti-corruption campaigners as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat”. Ms Strenz faces a fine of up to $68,000. She has also faced calls from within the Christian Democratic Party to resign.

But, critically for HRW, Ms Strenz is the only one of 16 members of the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) to be punished by their national parliaments since being thrown out of PACE for taking the gifts and cash in exchange for defending Azerbaijan’s human rights record.

In a statement, Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia, said: “This is the most shocking aspect…Let’s hope politicians in Spain, Belgium, and other parliaments hit by the scandal will quickly follow the Bundestag’s lead. It’s about standing up for human rights in Azerbaijan, and in Europe as a whole.”

Last year, PACE published a report that described a patronage and influence network set up by Azerbaijan to help it steer debates in the Assembly where people were openly criticising Baku’s human rights record.

Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has jailed dozens of opposition activists and journalists for financial crimes and drug smuggling, charges that many have said have been fabricated.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is sensitive to criticism from Europe, particularly because, at the time, he had been trying to secure a major gas supply deal.

The PACE report in 2018 said that Italian Luca Volonte was at the centre of the 2.4m euro corruption scandal to buy support in the Assembly for Azerbaijan.

He is being investigated in Italy for corruption, although a court in Milan cleared him of money laundering February 2018.

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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Uzbekistan extradites ex-BTA banker to Kazakhstan

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JAN. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan extradited Kazakh Artur Trofimov, a former executive at BTA Bank, to Kazakhstan for suspected money laundering and embezzlement. BTA Bank was a bank that the Kazakh government had to buy in 2008/9 to rescue it from bankruptcy. Its former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is currently in Paris after appealing against an extradition order. A French judge agreed with his argument that he was at risk of torture if he was returned to Kazakhstan. Since fleeing Kazakhstan in 2009, Ablyazov has turned himself into the leading critic of Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

British police take $1.55m ring from Azerbaijani

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LONDON/JAN. 13 (The Conway Bulletin) — British police say they seized an 8.9 carat ring from a jeweller’s where it had been taken to be repaired. The ring, bought at Harrods in London in 2011, is one of the multi-million dollar assets that Zamira Hajiyeva, wife of jailed Azerbaijani banker Jahangir Hajiyev, has bought. She is the subject of Britain’s first unexplained wealth order.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019

Georgia opens money laundering investigation into TBC Bank

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TBILISI/JAN. 9 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Prosecutor-General confirmed that it had launched a money laundering investigation focused on a handful of transactions by the chairman and deputy chairman of London-listed TBC Bank in 2008.

It said that Mamuka Khazaradze, the TBC chairman, and Bardi Japaridze, the deputy chairman, took a $17m unsecured loan from TBC through two shell companies, Samgori Trade LLC and Samgori M LLC, which was promptly written off by the Bank and has never been repaid.

The investigation was ongoing, the Prosecutor-General said, but also that in an earlier investigation Georgia’s Financial Monitoring Service had “arrived at the conclusion that activities clearly showed the characteristics of legalisation of illegal income, i.e. money laundering, and other illicit acts.”

TBC Bank has denied any wrongdoing and said that the Central Bank investigated these transactions in 2008 and passed them off as transparent.

“We hereby categorically deny the false accusations and misleading information carefully orchestrated by the forces behind the dark PR,” TBC said.

Some allies of Mr Khazaradze said that Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and the owner of a rival bank, may be trying to discredit him.

TBC Bank is the largest retail bank in Georgia with a 38% of the loan market. Its shares fell by 5% on news of the investigation to 1,408p.

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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019