Tag Archives: corruption

Newspapers accuse Aliyev of corruption

SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A series of newspapers in Europe, including the Guardian, published reports of alleged money laundering and bribe-paying by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family through London.

The reports said that Mr Aliyev and his family had set up a series of offshore shell companies that pushed cash around the world and paid to lobby influential journalists and politicians.

This is not the first time that Mr Aliyev had been accused of laundering money and bribe-paying. He has refuted previous allegations. Human rights groups accuse Mr Aliyev of presiding over a corrupt regime.
.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Bomdardier-Azerbaijan corruption trial begins

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The trial started in Stockholm of Evegny Pavlov, a 37-year-old Russian national, who is accused of bribing Azerbaijani officials in 2013 to win a $340m contract for Canadian train maker Bombardier.

Mr Pavlov was head of the Baku office of Bombardier, reporting to the company’s Europe office in Stockholm when it won a contract to replace and install train signals across Azerbaijan.

It had partnered with an unknown Azerbaijani company called Trans-Signal-Rabita to win the contract. Trans-Signal-Rabita was owned by employees of the Azerbaijani ministry of transport awarding the contract.

His lawyers have argued that he was too junior to influence the process and that any corruption issues lie higher up. Bombardier has denied any wrongdoing.

Five other Bombardier employees have been described as suspects, including Peter Cedervall, a senior official in the Stockholm office.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Aliyec sues French reporters for libel

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev started a libel case against two French journalists and a broadcaster for describing him as a dictator.

The libel claims focus on a report broadcast in 2015 from Azerbaijan by France 2 called: ‘My president is travelling on business’. Introducing the report, presenter Elise Lucet called Azerbaijan a “dictatorship” and reporter Laurent Richard described Mr Aliyev as a “despot” and a “dictator”.

The image-conscious Mr Aliyev is looking for a symbolic 1 euro in damages but also wants sanctions on the broadcaster and two reporters. His lawyers have said that the report was sensationalised and not based on fair reporting.

Azerbaijan is considered one of the worst countries in the world for media freedom. It has rowed with both the EU and the US over the past few years because of what free speech activists have said has been a systematic clampdown on journalists.

In 2011, the youngest daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, lost a libel case against French website rue89.com for calling her a “dictator’s daughter”.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Sweden to charge Bombardier with bribing Azerbaijan

Leave a Reply

AUG. 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Sweden said that would charge a Stockholm-based employee of Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier with bribing Azerbaijani officials. According to news reports, the unnamed Russian national bribed to win a $340m contract. He has, reportedly, denied the charges.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)

Gulnara was imprisoned in 2015 says Uzbek prosecutor

Leave a Reply

TASHKENT, JULY 28 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a rare public statement, Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor-General said that Gulnara Karimova, once considered a potential successor to her father President Islam Karimov, had been tried and found guilty of various financial crimes in August 2015.

Karimova has not been seen or heard of since being placed under house arrest in Tashkent in March 2014. Rumours had even circulated around Tashkent in the months after her father’s death from a heart attack in September last year that she had been poisoned.

The Prosecutor-General’s statement said that the globe-trotting self-styled diva had been the head of a crime gang. “Under the control and assistance of Karimova G. members of an organised crime group committed a number of crimes between 2001 and 2013,” it said.

At one time, during the height of her powers, Karimova had acted as the unofficial gatekeeper to Uzbekistan, demanding bribes of hundreds of millions of dollars for market access. Swedish-Finnish mobile operator Telia is selling out of its FSU subsidiaries because of the reputational damage caused by a series of investigations showed that it had paid Karimova $300m to set up a company in Uzbekistan in 2007/8.

Always despised by ordinary Uzbeks who hated her opulence while they struggled, the latest revelations about her wealth have further dented her reputation.

In Tashkent, a Bulletin correspondent said that people reacted with disgust and fury about the news the Karimova had headed a gang that had stolen and extorted hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I am outraged reading today’s news,” said a 31-year-old teacher.

“My neighbour was sentenced to seven years for eluding taxes worth just 10m soum ($2,500). Imagine seven years for just 10m soum and five years for a nationwide raid. What justice?”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

Kyrgyzstan sentences Akaev’s son-in-law

Leave a Reply

JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Bishkek sentenced Adil Toishanbayev, son-in-law of Askar Akayev — Kyrgyzstan’s first post- Soviet president, to 20 years in prison in absentia for various financial crimes including tax evasion. Mr Akayev was overthrown in a revolution in 2005. He now lives in Moscow. Mr Toishanbayev has been detained in Kazakhstan, Moscow and Dubai but never deported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Uzbekistan to reform tax collection system

Leave a Reply

JULY 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have said that they intend to reform the country’s tax system in line with a swathe of liberalisations across the country. It is unclear what officials meant by this but media reported that the government wanted to increase the amount of tax collected and cut down on corruption.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Kazakh police arrests four officials

Leave a Reply

JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested four members of the pharmacy committee within the health ministry for corruption, Kazakh media reported. Reports said that the four officials were suspected of taking bribes to give distribution certificates for drugs and of embezzling state funds by overstating the cost of medicines they were buying. Kazakhstan is trying to improve its reputation for corruption and this year has arrested several senior officials, including a former economy minister.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kazakh authorities slap $27.4m tax fine against Kcell

Leave a Reply

ALMATY, JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kcell, the biggest Kazakh mobile operator, said that Kazakhstan’s tax authorities have handed it a 9b tenge fine ($27.4m) for unpaid taxes.

In response Kcell, majority owned by Swedish -Finnish operator Telia, said it would dispute the fine, setting up a potentially explosive court fight between a Western corporate and the Kazakh government.

“Following the audit (of our accounts for 2012-15), the tax authority has made a total claim of 9b tenge, of which 5.8b tenge is for unpaid taxes and 3.2b tenge represents fines and penalties for late payment. Kcell intends to dispute this claim through the available mechanisms, which includes court litigation,” Kcell said in a statement.

For both parties a lengthy court battle is poor timing. After a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan centred on paying the daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov for market access, Telia said it wants to exit the former Soviet Union. As well as its stake in Kcell, it plans to sell out of Uzbekistan Ucell, Azerbaijan’s Azercell, Moldova’s Moldcell and Georgia’s Geocell.

Kazakhstan wants to woo finance companies into setting up in Astana, where it is building an investment centre. Headlines highlighting rows will damage this drive.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kazakh court jails Ablyazov

Leave a Reply

JUNE 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Kazakhstan sentenced fugitive former banker-turned- opposition-leader Mukhtar Ablyazov to 20 years in prison for various financial crimes. Ablyazov is currently living in France where a judge ruled that he couldn’t be extradited to Russia or Ukraine because there was a risk that he would then be sent to Kazakhstan and tortured. Kazakhstan has said that Ablyazov plotted to overthrow Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after he fled the country with billions of dollars he stole from BTA Bank, where he had been chairman.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)