Swiss Accuse Gulnara Karimova of Running Criminal Organization

Switzerland's federal prosecutor has filed an indictment against the imprisoned daughter of Uzbekistan's former president, accusing her of taking bribes and running an elaborate criminal organization known as "The Office." Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan from 1991 until his death in 2016, is accused of leading the operation, which allegedly channeled hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bribes from telecoms companies. Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said on September 28 that money was funneled through bank accounts in several countries before being transferred to banks in Switzerland. According to the statement, Karimova's network began its operations in Switzerland in 2005 “in order to conceal the capital originating from its criminal dealings in Swiss bank accounts and safes and by purchasing real estate.” "‘The Office conducted its criminal activities as a professional business, complying with mandatory regulations and observing a strict allocation of tasks, while also resorting to violence and intimidation," the prosecutors' statement said. In 2012, Switzerland said it froze around 800 million Swiss francs ($871.3 million) in connection with criminal proceedings against Karimova, a pop diva and businesswoman who had a public falling out with her late father and is currently in an Uzbek prison on embezzlement and criminal conspiracy charges. In December 2017, a Tashkent court sentenced Karimova to a 10-year prison term, but the sentence was later commuted to house arrest for five years. She was detained in March 2019 for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest. In February 2020, Karimova sent a letter to Mirziyoyev offering to return $686 million to the country's treasury in exchange for the dismissal of the court case against her at home. But a month later, she received an additional 13-year sentence after being found guilty of extortion, money laundering, and other crimes. In August, Britain's Serious Fraud Office confiscated three luxury properties worth more than $25.5 million in the United Kingdom that belonged to Gulnara Karimova. The total amount of assets associated with Karimova in Switzerland, France, and the United States is estimated at almost $1.4 billion. Uzbekistan is trying to recover at least $1 billion of that. The 51-year-old Karimova, once seen as a possible successor to her father, has also been tied to money-laundering investigations in Sweden and Switzerland.