Acting chief of Uzbek MTS subsidiary freed from custody
MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Radik Dautov, the acting general director of LLC Uzdunrobita (MTS-Uzbekistan), has been released from custody and returned to Russia, Russian top-three cellular provider OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) said in a statement.
Dautov's release was made possible by an intervention of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov personally, it said.
This past spring, Uzbekistan's prosecutor and tax authorities carried out a comprehensive audit of Uzdunrobita and found "misuse of funds, theft of property, as well as illegal schemes to cash funds and evade taxation."
Following this, various local authorities began to make claims against the company. The State Communications Inspectorate in June warned the MTS subsidiary that its license might be suspended or revoked due to infractions in its operations. Uzdunrobita's license was suspended on July 18 for a period of ten days, and on July 30 the suspension was extended for three months.
In addition to that, several Uzdunrobita employees - Dautov and four top managers - were taken into custody in July.
At the beginning of this week, the Economic Court of Tashkent decided to revoke all of Uzdunrobita's licenses. This decision was made on a lawsuit filed by the State Agency for Communications and Information of Uzbekistan's (SACI), which accused the MTS subsidiary of allowing its affiliates to operate without individual licenses. SACI believes that the failure to pay duties for licenses caused $210 million worth of damages to the government. According to the Uzbek authorities, the company's affiliates illegally earned $161 million for the sale of Uzdunrobita's services.
Uzdunrobita has vowed to appeal the Economic Court of Tashkent's decision to terminate its licenses in the near future.
MTS said on Monday that it would challenge more than $900 million in tax claims demanded from its subsidiary after a second wave of financial investigation was conducted into the company. The first investigation that ended in February 2012 did not uncover any serious abuses, it said.
"MTS reserves the right to utilize all possible legal instruments at a local and international level to recover, including from specific officials, losses incurred as a result of illegal actions against MTS' subsidiary company in Uzbekistan," the statement said.
Four of Uzdunrobita's employees are still in custody. MTS is working within Uzbek and international legislation to free them and protect their investment interests, the statement said.
