The trial of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan, begins on Monday at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. Karimova is charged with money laundering, breach of trust, corruption, and leading a criminal organisation known as "The Office", www.swissinfo.ch reported.
Reportedly, in the dock are a former asset manager at Lombard Odier and the Geneva-based private bank itself, both charged with money laundering. Karimova’s former right-hand man, charged with aggravated money laundering, corruption, and forgery of documents, rounds out the list of co-defendants.
The money laundering activities are alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2012. Karimova, formerly a businesswoman, singer, and socialite in her spare time, is accused of having opened more than 30 bank accounts at Swiss financial institutions through straw men. According to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), the funds of illicit origin were then transferred in order to obscure their criminal source. The amount is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The funds are said to have come primarily from bribes.
Bribes
The eldest daughter of the late Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist for more than 25 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, is currently serving a prison sentence near Tashkent. The woman known as the “Uzbek princess” served as Uzbekistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva between 2008 and 2013, and held ministerial positions within the Uzbek government.
Given her high-ranking position in the Uzbek government, Karimova served as a public official. In that capacity, she allegedly demanded and received bribes from telecommunications companies in exchange for access to the Uzbek market, according to the OAG. Prosecutors have therefore charged her with breach of trust and passive corruption.
Mechanisms of a criminal organisation
The internal structure, mode of operation, and system established by her associates (for example, the use of pseudonyms in communications between members) are said to resemble the mechanisms of a criminal organisation known as “The Office”. According to the indictment, Karimova allegedly carried out her activities over a long period of time, using a complex structure and setting up fictitious contracts to give the transferred funds a legal appearance.
Switzerland is not the first country to try the Uzbek woman. Following her father’s death in 2016, she was prosecuted by her country’s authorities for corruption and sentenced in 2020 to 13 years in prison.
Asset manager charged
As for the Geneva-based private bank Lombard Odier, the OAG accuses it of having accepted a portion of the funds deposited in Switzerland. These funds were allegedly transferred to an account held by a company headed by one of the co-defendants, Karimova’s former right-hand man.
The bank is alleged to have failed to take all necessary organisational measures to prevent money laundering: the OAG criticises it for organizational shortcomings, such as having too many internal guidelines that are overly confusing. Furthermore, the bank allegedly failed to adequately monitor the activities of its asset manager, who knowingly opened accounts in the names of beneficial owners who were not the actual beneficiaries of the accounts.
Between 2008 and 2012, the manager allegedly opened nine accounts for various Uzbek beneficial owners, while knowing full well that the sole beneficiary of these accounts was Karimova. He is said to have met members of “The Office” as early as 2006.
A month-long trial
The OAG also accuses him of knowing that the funds had been transferred to the bank accounts for the purpose of money laundering. These accounts, which listed false beneficial owners, reportedly accounted for 90% of his portfolio, amounting to CHF470 million ($599 million). According to prosecutors, he thus had a personal interest in opening and maintaining these banking relationships.
The OAG did not specify in the indictment the penalties it intends to seek against the co-defendants, but announced that it will do so during the trial. The trial is expected to last one month, and the verdict is expected by the end of May.
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