Tag Archives: corruption

Putin persuaded me into exile, says former Kyrgyz president

MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Belarusian service, former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev said that Vladimir Putin — then Russian PM, now its president — had telephoned him during a revolution in 2010 to persuade him to flee into exile in Belarus. Kyrgyzstan wants to extradite Mr Bakiyev, who now lives permanently in Belarus, to face various corruption charges.

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

Tajik police investigates Dushanbe ex-mayor

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Tajikistan are investigating the former mayor of Dushanbe, Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, for corruption linked to the construction of a shopping centre, media reported. Mr Ubaidulloev had served as the mayor of Dushanbe for 20 years before, surprisingly, resigning in January. He was replaced by Rustam Emomali, the son of Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon. Analysts have said that before he quit as mayor of Dushanbe, Mr Ubaidulloev was considered the ultimate elite insider and that the corruption allegations are part of a power struggle.

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

Trump’s problematic Azerbaijan hotel deal

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> So what has Donald Trump, President of the United States, been doing in Azerbaijan?

>> Trump’s deals with Azerbaijanis have been getting him in trouble. Do you remember the dossier that a former British spy compiled on him last year, during the US presidential election? So incriminating were some of his discoveries about Trump’s alleged dealings with Russia and his potential for being blackmailed that the spy handed over the dossier to the US intelligence services. At the heart of these allegations was a visit that Trump made to Moscow in 2013 during the Miss Universe contest that he owns. There were some lewd allegations from that trip, too lewd to repeat in this family newspaper, but, and this is the point, the trip was set up by an Azerbaijani businessman, Araz Agalarov, with strong links in Russia.

>> Okay, but now I hear that there has been hotel project in Baku which is linked to Trump.

>> Yes, this is a different issue. Trump agreed to lend his brand to a hotel in a Baku suburb in 2012. This was before the US election and during a boom time for the Azerbaijani economy. It was a good place to invest. His daughter Ivanka visited the Tower in 2014 to make sure that the work was going to plan. While she was there, she also met with Trump’s Azerbaijani business partners, and this is where the trouble now lies for Trump. He either picked his business partners carelessly or, worse, was in some way complicit in various dodgy deals.

>> What do you mean? Who were his business partners for this Baku project?

>> Trump’s main business partner was Elton Mammadov, brother of Azerbaijan’s former powerful transport minister Ziya Mammadov who has various businesses, including in the hotel sector. The problem for Trump is that these businesses are alleged to be linked to corruption and also to dealings with Iran’s Republican Guard. This is illegal for Americans under US sanctions. Trump has vigorously denied any links to corruption or doing business with Iran.

>> What has Trump and his team done about this?

>> Before Christmas, Trump quietly cut his links to the unopened Baku hotel and last month, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev sacked Ziya Mammadov as transport minister, although it is unclear if this was connected to the Baku hotel deal.

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

Kazakh police arrests another official

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MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested Bazarbai Nurabaev, chairman of the Committee for Geology and subsoil use within the ministry of investment and development, the latest high profile government official to be detained for corruption. The anti- corruption agency said that Mr Nurabaev and his deputies had been extorting bribes from several companies in return for licences.

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

Protests weaken in Kyrgyzstan

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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)