Telecom corruption scandal
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The Telecom corruption scandal is a 2012 corruption case involving the daughter of President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova, accepting bribes from several foreign telecom companies in exchange for contracts to do business within Uzbekistan. Revelations showed that Karimova was paid bribes through a series of shell companies by a series of firms seeking to negotiate with her directly. In addition, it was discovered that more industries had paid bribes for access to Uzbekistan than simply telecom firms.[1][2]
A Swiss criminal investigation begun in 2012 was directed at first against four Uzbek citizens who had connections to Karimova. Two of them were arrested that year and freed on bail.[3] Also in 2012, a Swedish TV documentary stated that a Swedish telecom group, TeliaSonera, in exchange for licenses and frequencies in Uzbekistan, had paid $320 million to a Gibraltar-based shell company, Takilant, that was reportedly linked to Karimova. TeliaSonera denied the charges.[1]
Revelations
In January 2013, Swedish investigators released new documents apparently showing that TeliaSonera had tried to negotiate directly with Karimova.[2] In the same year, US and Dutch authorities began investigating her.[4]
In February 2014, the chief executive of TeliaSonera was forced resign after serious failures of due diligence were uncovered. In May, the Swedish media made documents public that suggested Karimova had aggressively dictated the terms of the TeliaSonera contract and threatened it with obstruction by several Uzbek government ministries if it did not agree to make illegal payments. Related money-laundering investigations in Switzerland and Sweden continued throughout the year, and hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts connected to the case being frozen by authorities.[5] By the end of the year, Swedish criminal proceedings were underway.[1]
It was reported in March 2014 that Swiss authorities had begun a money-laundering investigation into Karimova and corruption in Uzbekistan, and prosecutors in Bern said that the evidence had led their investigation into Sweden and France and that they had “seized assets in excess of 800 million Swiss francs ($912 million).”[6][1]
It was also revealed in 2014 that the US Justice Department and SEC were investigating Vimpelcom Ltd., based in Amsterdam; the Russian firm Mobile TeleSystems PJSC; and Sweden's TeliaSonera AB. These three firms had funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to firms controlled by Karimova. An August 2015 report stated that US prosecutors were asking authorities in Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Switzerland to seize assets of about $1 billion in connection with their investigation into corruption by the three above-mentioned global telecoms and other firms liked to Karimova. US authorities believed Karimova was the principal of a “$1 billion fortune scattered across the continent.”[7] In November 2015, it was reported that Karimova was possibly on the run. Reports stated that she had been seen at a restaurant in Tashkent.[4]
It was reported in January 2015 that although executives at the Norwegian telecom firm Telenor, which owns one-third of Vimpelcom, claimed that they had uncovered no signs of corruption, a newly released document indicated that Telenor had knowledge about millions in bribes.[8]