Earlier, data surfaced on a government corporate portal that J-United Group LLC, owned by the Tashkent city mayor Jahongir Ortikhodjaev, was provided 20 billion soums in a loan by Poytakhtbank. But, Poytakhtbank denied it had issued a loan to the said company and denied any wrongdoing.
Several days ago the corporate data portal entered data that Poytakhtbank had provided J-United Group LLC 20 billion soums in a loan for operations. Following the public outcry on the social media, the said entry was deleted from the portal and the bank officials issued an official statement.
The bank’s official statement signed by the bank chairman Majid Tahirov said:
“J-United Group LLC has no account at Poytakhtbank and is not the bank’s client whatsoever. Please be officially informed that the news that Poytakhtbank JSC had provided a loan to J-United Group LLC is not accurate. This information was entered into the www.openinfo.uz system by a technical error”.
The sole founder and owner of J-United Group LLC is the mayor of Tashkent city Jahongir Ortikhodjaev. While, Poytakhtbank was founded in 2018 by the order of the mayor Ortikhodjaev, and is fully owned by the Tashkent city mayor’s office.
So, as of 18:00 on November 18, the link to the page of this information on the Corporate Single Information Portal is showing No page found.
In line with the Rules of submission and publication of data in the securities market, registered with the Ministry of Justice on July 31, 2012 No. 2383, issuers of securities disclose information by placing it on the Single Corporate Data Portal (www.openinfo.uz). Important data posted on the portal, quarterly and annual reports shall be stored on the portal, are not subject to removal and editing.
Last year in January, Open Democracy, in an investigation into the companies spearheading the US$ 1.4 billion Tashkent City mega-project, found conflict of interest or even self-dealing in a complex trail of documents that leads to a series of entities closely linked to Jaxongir Ortikxodjaev.
Jaxongir Ortikxodjaev founded a business empire, which includes Akfa and Artel Groups, and he is said to own several construction, investment, media, confectionary, beverages and other entities through proxies. He was appointed as the Tashkent city mayor in 2018.
