Ajit Karn
According to report, musical star and diplomat Gulnara Karimova, daughter of former Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, spent $240 million on properties from London to Hong Kong.
According to a study by Freedom For Eurasia, Ms. Karimova used UK companies to purchase properties and an aircraft with bribe and corruption funds. In addition, it was stated that accountancy firms from London and the British Virgin Islands were utilised by UK corporations participating in the agreements.
According to the publication, the British government has been criticised for not doing enough to prevent foreign criminals from laundering money on British property. There is no evidence that those representing the firms associated with her were aware of her connection. No one in the United Kingdom who supplied these services has been investigated or punished. Note that Ms. Karimova was formerly anticipated to succeed her father. She appeared in music videos under the moniker “Googoosha,” owned a jewellery business, and served as Ambassador to Spain.
However, in 2014 she disappeared from public view. She was imprisoned in December 2017 after it was disclosed she had been detained on suspicion of corruption while her father was in office. In 2019, Ms. Karimova was sentenced to prison for violating the terms of her house detention. She was accused of belonging to a criminal organisation that controlled more than $1 billion in assets across 12 countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.
However, some of the allegedly corruptly acquired properties had already been sold. According to Freedom For Eurasia, which conducted its investigation into property and land registry data, at least 14 properties in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Dubai, and Hong Kong were purchased with allegedly questionable funds prior to her arrest.
The report, according to the report, concentrates on five properties purchased in and around London that are now estimated to be worth 50 million pounds. These residences include three apartments near Buckingham Palace in Belgravia, a house in Mayfair, and a manor estate in Surrey with a private boating lake. Prior to Ms. Karimova’s 2013 imprisonment, two of the Belgravia apartments were sold. In 2017, the Serious Fraud Office placed a freeze on the Surrey estate, the Mayfair residence, and the Belgravia apartment.
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In its report, Freedom For Eurasia also cites corporations in London and the British Virgin Islands that Karimova or her associates allegedly used to purchase real estate and a private aircraft with criminal proceeds. Rustam Madumarov, Ms. Karimova’s fiancé, and other individuals who are purportedly her accomplices were identified as the “beneficial owners” of companies with locations in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, and the British Virgin Islands in official records. According to the study, they were merely fronts for Ms. Karimova, who used the enterprises to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars.
SH Landes, an accounting firm affiliated with Ms. Karimova’s UK-based enterprises, attempted to incorporate or acquire another company in 2020. The goal was to purchase a private aircraft for approximately $40 million with her fiancé as the beneficial owner. According to the report, Ms. Karimova was in fact the primary force behind the acquisition.
