Uzbekistan: 166 bank employees are prosecuted for corruption

166 officials of Uzbek banks are under investigation or have already been convicted of corruption, as reported to the Uzbek media by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The most significant figure among them was the former banker Murodilla Eshmatov. Last year, he served as chairman of the board of the largest joint-stock bank, Halk Bank, and then moved to the same position at Microcredit Bank. During this time, with accomplices, he cashed out and transferred over $ 22 million abroad.

In the course of the investigation, it turned out that the financier established four fictitious companies, with the help of which illegal transactions were made.

Having become the head of the Halk Bank, Murodilla Eshmatov immediately refused the services of the organizations that were building the bank building, giving the contract to the controlled firms. As a result of the machinations, corrupt officials stole over $ 5 million of bank funds. Millions of dollars in national currency were transferred to various plastic cards in the form of financial aid.

After being appointed the head of Microcredit Bank, Eshmatov through his firms paid $ 25,000 to equip his office with furniture that cost less than $ 10,000.

He took up his post using career connections and influence. From 1995 to 2016, Eshmatov held various positions in the system of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan. The last one was the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.

During the change of power, falling out of favor with the country’s leadership, he agreed to a modest position for him as first deputy hokim for economy and entrepreneurship issues of Syrdarya region. Invested with the confidence of the President Mirziyoev, in 2019 he briefly occupied a prominent position in the country’s banking sector, which made it possible to significantly enrich himself in a short period of time.

The main shareholders of these two banks are the Fund for Reconstruction and Development and the Ministry of Finance. In 2019, the Halk Bank generated a net profit of $ 36.3 billion from the creation of 12 different lottery games. Microcredit Bank works in close cooperation with international financial institutions and foreign commercial banks.

Now investigators have to figure out the full conception of elite corruption and identify the circle of high-ranking patrons, without whom financial scams would have been impossible to pull off.