The nation of Uzbekistan revealed on Friday
that it has jailed Gulnara Karimova, the eldest
daughter of late president Islam
Karimo, after charging her with massive
fraud and money laundering.
Gulnara Karimova was once a prominent
socialite, fashion designer and singer.
According BBC, in a statement the
Uzbekistan Prosecutor-General’s Office said
that “Gulnara Karimova has been charged”
with crimes including fraud, money
laundering and concealing foreign currency
“and she has been held behind bars”.
Karimova, 45, is the eldest daughter of the
late authoritarian president of the secretive
ex-Soviet Central Asian state, who died
following a reported stroke in September
last year.
She was once tipped to succeed her father
and was a high-profile figure, serving in
diplomatic posts including as ambassador to
Spain and Uzbekistan’s permanent
representative to the United Nations in
Geneva.
She also organised a fashion week, had her
own jewellery line and released pop singles
under the name Googoosha as well as
running entertainment television channels.
In a statement, the organised crime unit of
the Prosecutor-General’s Office said she was
a member of an organised criminal group
that controlled assets worth more than $1.3
billion in 12 countries.
It said these included London properties
worth £22.9 million ($29.95 million) and
hotels in Dubai worth $67.4 million.
Among the long list of allegations against
Karimova are that she fraudulently acquired
assets worth $595 million and received $
869.3 million in kickbacks that were paid
into offshore accounts.
She has been reportedly under house arrest
in the country since 2014 after publicly
feuding with her mother and her younger
sister Lola on Twitter. She did not attend her
father’s funeral.
The statement by the Prosecutor-General’s
office says that she was handed a five-year
non-custodial sentence, that did not see her
jailed, in 2015.
In an interview with the BBC in December,
her London-based son Islam Karimov Jr., 23,
called on authorities in Uzbekistan to prove
that his mother was alive and well.
Karimova is also the subject of a multi-year
corruption probe targeting Western
telecoms firms that US and European
investigators say paid her billions of dollars
to secure access to the national market.
Swiss prosecutors reportedly questioned
her in Tashkent in December, quashing
rumours of her possible death.
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