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Gulnara Karimova
Switzerland agreed to send $131 million, part of the confiscated money of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, to Uzbekistan.
Swiss authorities froze 800 million Swiss Francs (approximately $840 million) in Karimova’s account in 2012 when she was Uzbekistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva.
Switzerland said that this money was a bribe paid by three mobile phone companies that wanted to enter the Uzbek market. In 2019, 131 million dollars of this frozen money was confiscated.
Now it has been decided that this money will be used for the development of Uzbekistan and be sent back to the country.
The agreement was signed in Bern, Switzerland, by the Minister of Justice of Uzbekistan Ruslanbek Davletov and the President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis.
According to the agreement, a UN fund of 131 million dollars will be created. “This fund will enable the money to be used for the benefit of the community of Uzbekistan,” said Cassis.
Karimova was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Uzbekistan in 2017 on charges of fraud and money laundering. The sentence was later commuted to 5 years house arrest. In 2019, Kerimova was sent to prison for violating house arrest rules.