UK seizes Gulnara Karimova's assets worth over 20 mln pounds

TASHKENT. Aug 9 (Interfax) - The British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has seized three luxury properties from Gulnara Karimova, the elder daughter of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Uzbek media said on Wednesday, citing a statement by the British oversight agency.

These are two apartments in the prestigious Belgravia district of London and a mansion in Surrey with an estimated value of over 20 million pounds.

The SFO said Gulnara Karimova and her family purchased the real estate with proceeds from corrupt activities in Uzbekistan.

Karimova received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from telecom companies in 2004-2012 in exchange for facilitating access to the Uzbek market, it said.

The SFO filed a lawsuit in October 2018 to seize Karimova's British assets, including the three properties. The bureau said the UK Supreme Court allowed the claim on August 8.

As reported, Gulnara Karimova is serving time in Uzbekistan.

She was convicted of extortion and tax evasion in August 2015 and sentenced to ten years in a penitentiary in another case on December 18, 2017. In March 2020, the Tashkent Criminal Court extended Karimova's sentence to 13 years and four months in a new case on the establishment of a criminal network, extortion and embezzlement.

The value of assets associated with Gulnara Karimova in Switzerland, France, the United States and some other countries is estimated at over $1.3 billion. The Uzbek government seeks to recover some of it.

In December 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Karimova under the Magnitsky Act. The department said that Karimova was in charge of a major organized crime syndicate that recruited state actors to expropriate businesses, monopolize markets and solicit bribes, and engaged in extortion.