Tag Archives: corruption

US goes after Uzbek President’s daughter

JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US prosecutors have opened a case against an unnamed relative of Uzbek president Islam Karimov to regain around $300m paid out in apparent bribes by two Russian telecoms companies, media reported. The unnamed relative is widely thought to be Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimov’s eldest daughter.

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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)

Another EXPO-2017 arrest in Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested Sulambek Barkinkhoyev, the managing-director of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s flagship EXPO-2017 event, on suspicion of corruption. The arrest came a few days after police also arrested Mr Barkinkhoyev’s boss on corruption allegations.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

Congress investigates Azerbaijan trip

JUNE 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US Congress said that its ethics committee was investigating whether SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state-owned energy company, paid for a 2013 trip to Baku for 10 congressmen and 32 staff members.

Congress’ rules ban foreign governments paying for overseas trips. All the Congressmen implicated in the investigation deny any wrong-doing and have said that they were unaware that SOCAR had paid for their trips to a conference in Baku.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the focus of the investigation are hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out by SOCAR to two Texas-based non-profit organisations which then paid for trips to Baku.

Azerbaijan’s lobbying techniques have attracted more and more criticism over the past few years.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

Uzbekistan investigates UzGasOil

JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s security forces opened a money laundering investigation into UzGazOil, a private company that runs a network of petrol stations, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. UzGazOil was owned by Zeromax which was linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Pres. Islam Karimov.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Kazakh police arrested EXPO 2017 chief

JUNE 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested on corruption charges Talgat Yermegiyayev, two days after he had quit as the chairman of the company organising President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s EXPO-217 extravaganza.

The arrest will be a major embarrassment to Mr Nazarbayev who has pledged to crackdown on corruption in Kazakhstan.

Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, the mayor of Astana, was quickly given the job of heading EXPO- 2017.

For Mr Yermegiyayev, a powerful businessmen with links to the top of the Kazakh elite, his arrest marks a very heavy fall from grace.

Alongside him, police also arrested Kazhymurat Usenov on embezzlement charges. Mr Usenov was in charge of much of the construction work for EXPO-2017 in Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Kyrgyzstan misuses aids funds

MAY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Switzerland-based Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculo- sis and Malaria has said Kyrgyzstan needs to repay $120,000 for misuse of funds, media reported. The Global Fund described the $120,000 as “unsubstantiated and inappropriate to the crite- ria for financing”.

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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Saakashvili visiting Azerbaijan

APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has filed an extradition request to Azerbaijan for former president Mikheil Saakashvili, media reported. Mr Saakashvili, who is now based in New York and Kiev and is an adviser to the pro- Western Ukraine government, is visiting Azerbaijan for a conference.

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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Uzbek prosecutor quits

APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s prosecutor-general Rashid Qodirov has resigned unexpectedly, media reported. Mr Qodirov was made famous for ordering the arrest last year of Gulnara Krimova, eldest daughter of president Islam Karimov, for various economic crimes.

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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Tajikistan in corruption bust

MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan have detained two senior officials at the State Agency for Drugs Control on suspicion of bribe-taking, media reported. The detentions, underline just how entrenched corruption is in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Bribes halve in Tajikistan

MARCH 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Worsening economic conditions in Tajikistan have even knocked the value of bribes in the notoriously corrupt country, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. It said that the value of bribes had halved over the past few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)