COVID-19 Latest
Uzbekistan|politics|April 30, 2016 / 04:51 PM
Telecoms forfeiture case moved into U.S.-Uzbekistan negotiations

AKIPRESS.COM - Gulnara Karimova The U.S. forfeiture case that seeks some $850 million in alleged bribes paid to Uzbekistan government officials has been moved into settlement discussions between American and Uzbek authorities over who has rights to the assets, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The case from February was grouped into existing discussions between the two countries over a 2015 kleptocracy case arising from the same telecoms deal that sought around $300 million in improper payments. Uzbekistan has claimed ownership of the funds, and both cases have been paused until July 31 pending out-of-court settlement discussions between the nations.

“The United States of America and the Republic of Uzbekistan…wish to discuss a possible out-of-court resolution and believe that a stay of the litigation would support those discussions while preserving party and court resources,” a court order said.

The cases stem from a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation into payments made by telecom giant Vimpelcom VIP +0.79% to gain entry into the Uzbekistan market. The company agreed to pay $785 million to settle foreign corruption charges in February.

Defendants named in the forfeiture cases include the elder daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Gulnara Karimova. Ms. Karimova has previously denied wrongdoing in the telecoms case.

Ms. Karimova and the other named defendants didn’t contest the forfeiture action and the U.S. had moved for a default judgement against the funds before the case was stayed.

An attorney for Holwell Shuster & Goldberg law firm, which is representing Uzbekistan in the cases, declined to comment.

The U.S. Justice Department wasn’t immediately available for comment Thursday. In February, a Justice Department official said that the U.S. has arranged for repatriation of funds to local charitable organizations to resolve similar forfeiture cases in the past.

All rights reserved

© AKIpress News Agency - 2001-2024.

Republication of any material is prohibited without a written agreement with AKIpress News Agency.

Any citation must be accompanied by a hyperlink to akipress.com.

Our address:

299/5 Chingiz Aitmatov Prosp., Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic

e-mail: english@akipress.org, akipressenglish@gmail.com;

Follow us:

Log in


Forgot your password? - recover

Not registered yet? - sign-up

Sign-up

I have an account - log in

Password recovery

I have an account - log in