In mid-December, the Federal Criminal Court issued an order in the money laundering affair involving the daughter of the late Uzbek president. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has now lodged a complaint against it.
Gulnara Karimowa, formerly the daughter of the president who was embraced, is currently serving a long prison sentence in Uzbekistan.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) wants to prevent the Uzbek Gulnara Karimova, who is suspected of money laundering, from receiving back part of the funds frozen in this country. She filed a complaint against an order of the Federal Criminal Court dated December 17, as a BA spokeswoman announced on Tuesday at the request of the NZZ. With the decision, the criminal division of the court had declared the collection of alleged bribes in the amount of 293.6 million dollars to be lawful. In the case of $ 69.3 million, however, the court could not prove criminal origin, which is why these funds are to be returned.
In the course of the money laundering affair surrounding the daughter of the late Uzbek president, the assets were blocked as a precautionary measure on accounts in Geneva. In May 2018, the Federal Prosecutor’s office ordered the confiscation of a total of 555 million dollars for the purpose of repayment to Uzbekistan against the former closest colleague of Karimova. Gulnara Karimova’s Geneva attorneys objected to the confiscation of over $ 350 million on behalf of the Account Owner, a mailbox company in Gibraltar.
The 49-year-old Gulnara Karimova – she is serving a long prison sentence in Uzbekistan like her former employee – was successful after a long back and forth over the admission of the objection, as the federal criminal court gave her or the mailbox company she controls almost 70 million dollars agreed. So far, the court has only published the dispositive. The Geneva defense attorneys for the Uzbekin spoke of a defeat for the federal prosecutor’s office and said they were right on one crucial point. All Uzbek judgments are excluded because the judges in Tashkent cannot verify the minimal respect for their client’s fundamental rights.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office did not provide any information on the grounds for their appeal. He is judged by the Board of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court. According to Code of Criminal Procedure The following points can be complained about: violations of the law, including excess and misuse of discretion, denial of rights and legal delay, the incomplete or incorrect determination of the facts and inappropriateness. There is also likely to be resistance from the USA to the return of blocked funds to Karimowa. The US judiciary has been conducting money laundering proceedings against the Uzbek and a former employee since March 2019. After the judgment of the Federal Criminal Court, the Uzbek Ministry of Justice declared that it wanted to negotiate with Switzerland and the USA about the repatriation of Karimova’s funds.
Of the original CHF 800 million that the BA had confiscated from accounts in Switzerland, there are currently legally binding confiscation orders for CHF 340 million. They are to be returned to Uzbekistan. The FDFA foreign department is currently negotiating an agreement with Uzbekistan so that the restituted funds benefit the Uzbek people and do not trickle down into corrupt channels again.
Karimowa was once considered the designated successor of her father Islam Karimow. However, the diplomat, fashion designer and singer fell out of favor with her own family in 2013. She is accused of having received around one billion dollars in bribes from the telecommunications companies Vimpelcom, Telia and MTS when awarding mobile phone licenses. In comparisons with the authorities in the USA, the Netherlands and Sweden, they have now paid fines of 2.6 billion dollars.