NOV. 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kcell, Kazakhstan’s biggest mobile operator, plans to list on stock exchanges in London and Almaty by the end of 2012, media quoted sources as saying. Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera is the main shareholder in Kcell.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
NOV. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Investigators in Moscow seized an apartment belonging to Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbekistan’s president, media reported. Media outlets said the seizure of Ms Karimova’s apartment, which is reportedly worth $10m, was designed to counter pressure in Uzbekistan on Russian mobile operator MTS.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gulnara Karimova, the 40-year-old daughter of Uzbek president, leads a glitzy lifestyle. In September, she released a new pop song and this month she launched her own perfume.
Now, though, Ms Karimova has been indirectly linked to a money laundering investigation in Switzerland that focuses on four Uzbek nationals.
Publicly accessible documents in France, unearthed by Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra and reported on by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, showed that on at least one occasion Ms Karimova co-signed a document for property in the south of France with Alisher Ergashev, one of two Uzbek men detained in Geneva in July by investigators.
It’s also emerged that another of the Uzbek nationals being investigated in Switzerland is Gayane Avakyan, an ethnic Armenian woman closely linked to Ms Karimova.
Aside from the Swiss investigation, Ms Avakyan is also one of the main protagonists in a deal Swedish prosecutors are looking into. In the 2007/8 deal, Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera bought an Uzbek 3G mobile licence from Gibraltar-registered Takilant. TeliaSonera has denied any wrong-doing, but Swedish prosecutors are investigating irregularities.
Both the investigations, and Ms Karimova’s glitzy lifestyle, continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Sweden have opened an investigation into alleged bribery and money laundering by TeliaSonera, a Swedish telecoms company with businesses across the world, linked to a deal in 2007 to buy a 3G licence in Uzbekistan, media reported.
In the 2007 deal, TeliaSonera bought the licence from a Gibraltar registered company called Takilant for $352m. The Swedish media has speculated that the real owners of Takilant may have had close links to Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan.
TeliaSonera, in which the Swedish government owns 37%, has denied the allegations. The media, though, reported that the company’s CEO, Lars Nyberg, has said he doesn’t know whether people other than the nominal owner of Talikant benefited from the deal or how it came to own the 3G licence in the first place. Swedish media focused on TeliaSonera’s role in the saga, but it also throws more light on how business is conducted in Uzbekistan. And it’s not pretty.
Russian mobile operator MTS is currently fighting allegations of tax avoidance in Uzbekistan and, separately, Swiss authorities have opened a money laundering investigation into four unnamed Uzbek citizens. Corruption allegations over the TeliaSonera/Takilant deal add to this picture.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced four managers at Uzdunrobita, a subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, to up to 2-1/2 years in prison, media quoted MTS as saying. Uzbek officials have confiscated Uzdunrobita’s property and cancelled its licence. They said Uzdunrobita has avoided paying taxes and broken its contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)
SEP. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan ordered the authorities to seize the assets of Russian mobile operator MTS’s local subsidiary, Uzdunrobita, media reported. The Uzbek authorities accuse Uzdunrobita of tax evasion and breaking its contract. Uzdunrobita denies the charges and says the government is trying to steal its assets.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian mobile operator MTS said that a row with the Uzbek authorities had knocked $1.1b off its profit in the second quarter of the year. Earlier this month a court in Uzbekistan revoked MTS’s operating licence. MTS had over 9m subscribers in Uzbekistan. It has said the move is an attempt to steal its business.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian mobile phone operator, MTS, said it would resume work in Turkmenistan from the start of September. Through its local subsidiary, MTS had an 85% share of the Turkmen mobile market before the government abruptly cancelled is licence at the end of 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
AUG. 13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has cancelled all licences held by the Russian mobile operator MTS, which operates under the local brand Uzdunrobita, media reported. Uzbek officials had previously slapped temporary bans on MTS for alleged tax dodging the breaking its contract. MTS denies the allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, Uzdunrobita, is facing fines of $80m for violating various regulations, the AP news agency quoted the company as saying. The Uzbek authorities suspended Uzdunrobita last month after accusing it of avoiding taxes. Uzdunrobita, which had nearly 10m subscribers, denies the charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
