Switzerland has announced it has signed an agreement with Uzbekistan under which it will return $131 million confiscated as part of a money laundering investigation against the eldest daughter of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
According to a government statement, the agreement provides that money seized from Swiss accounts owned by Gulnara Karimova in 2012 will be placed in a UN fund and used “for the benefit of the people of Uzbekistan.”
Under the agreement, additional assets may be confiscated from Gulnara Karimova as part of the ongoing criminal proceedings in Switzerland, and they will also go to the UN fund.
Gulnara, who was placed under house arrest in Uzbekistan in 2014, is suspected of receiving large sums of money from foreign telecommunications companies in connection with contracts in Uzbekistan, but denies any wrongdoing.
Notably, Islam Karimov was President of Uzbekistan from 1991 until his death in 2016.
Source: Associated Press