TASHKENT -- Uzbek officials say their efforts to get back assets "illegally" earned by the jailed daughter of late President Islam Karimov has led to the return of $10 million to Tashkent from France.
The Justice Ministry said on February 15 that another $10 million belonging to Gulnara Karimova, the late leader's eldest daughter, had previously been returned by France to Uzbekistan in 2020.
The ministry added that it was working with authorities in Switzerland, the United States, France, Russia, and several other nations on returning more of Karimova’s assets, which it says were "earned through criminal activities."
According to the ministry, the latest talks on the issue were held between Uzbek and Swiss officials on February 11.
"The sides agreed at the talks to create a multiparty trust fund with the United Nations. The fund will be working on the return of the assets that were confiscated under a court decision as part of the probe against Gulnara Karimova.... Currently, assets worth of about $131 million are ready to be transferred to Uzbekistan," the ministry said.
The ministry added that the Moscow City Court in Russia had recognized the Uzbek court's decisions regarding Karimova's assets and property abroad, and therefore Russian officials are currently looking into the possibility of liquidating property in Moscow belonging to her and then returning the proceeds to Uzbekistan.
In 2020, the Swiss government said that, according to a nonbinding framework agreement signed between Switzerland and Uzbekistan, any returned assets "shall be used for the benefit of the people of Uzbekistan."
Switzerland froze around 800 million Swiss francs ($864.5 million) in 2012 in connection with criminal proceedings against Karimova, of which almost $131 million was confiscated in 2019.
Tashkent has sought over $1 billion from foreign jurisdictions since announcing Karimova's imprisonment in 2017.
Once seen as a possible successor to her father, Karimova was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in 2014 while he was still alive and running the country. Karimov died in 2016 and Shavkat Mirziyoev succeeded him soon afterward.
Criminal investigations in Switzerland, the United States, Sweden, and the Netherlands have linked Karimova to a massive, yearslong bribery scheme that revolved mainly around foreign telecommunications companies gaining access to the lucrative Uzbek market.
In December 2017, Karimova was sentenced to a 10-year prison term, but the sentence was later reclassified to house arrest and shortened to five years. She was placed in jail in March 2019 for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.
In February 2020, she sent a letter to Mirziyoev offering to return $686 million to the country's treasury in exchange for the dismissal of the court case against her at home.
But a month later, she received an additional 13 years and four months in prison after being found guilty of extortion, money laundering, and other crimes.
