On September 18, the Russian outlet The Insider reported that one of equity owners of Anorbank, Kakhramonjon Olimov had been arrested in absentia in Uzbekistan and put on an international wanted list in connection with a kidnapping case. The outlet noted separately that there is no official confirmation that such a criminal case exists.
According to The Insider's source, the case may stem from a long-running financial dispute between Olimov and his former employer, Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, one of equity owners of Kapitalbank, where Olimov once worked and held a stake of more than 36%. The outlet claimed Olimov is accused of orchestrating Rakhimov's kidnapping in order to pressure him into dropping financial claims against him. Uzbek law enforcement authorities have not officially confirmed this account.
Anorbank issued a statement stressing that the matter concerns "the personal affairs of one shareholder" and has no connection to the bank itself, its capital, management, or operations. "Conflating these issues is inaccurate and unacceptable," the bank said in a statement.
The bank said it had received no official confirmation or inquiries regarding the matter. "The information circulating in various sources is not backed by official data and has not been confirmed by the relevant authorities," it said.
Anorbank said it continues to operate normally, with banking operations and customer service proceeding as usual and its obligations to clients and partners being met in full.
The bank also urged clients, partners, and the public to treat reports from unverified, anonymous sources with skepticism and to rely on officially confirmed information instead.
This is not the first time Anorbank has issued such a statement: after reports emerged in 2025 that Olimov had been kidnapped in France, the bank similarly described the incident as a private matter unrelated to its operations. (More on that case below.)
Kidnapping case in France
In July 2025, the French newspaper Le Monde reported, citing the businessman’s own testimony to France's anti-gang squad, that Olimov had been kidnapped in France.
Olimov said he was abducted in central Paris on June 23, then taken first to an undisclosed location and later to a villa in Nice. There, he said, he was beaten and pressured to hand over money. He ultimately signed a promissory note for $5 million and, through his driver, arranged for an intermediary in Tashkent to pay $200,000. He was then released and reported the incident to French police.
Le Monde reported that French authorities opened an investigation into a kidnapping carried out by an organized group, and that one suspect had been taken into custody. Olimov himself linked the incident to a long-standing dispute with former business partners.
In November 2025, The Insider and L'Express published a joint investigation raising questions about certain details of Olimov's account. Among other things, the outlets pointed to correspondence between Olimov and a person he had identified as one of his kidnappers, as well as other inconsistencies. The publication of these findings does not in itself establish that the version of events they presented is accurate.
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