The Serious Fraud Office has confiscated three luxury properties of daughter of the first President of Uzbekistan Gulnara Karimova in the UK. These are two apartments in Belgravia and a mansion in Surrey, according to the anti-corruption agency.
The Serious Fraud Office filed a lawsuit to seize Karimova's British assets in October 2018. The Supreme Court of Great Britain granted this claim on August 8. The value of the seized property was estimated at more than £20 million ($25.4 million).
"We have uncovered a complex financial scheme associated with several offshore accounts and companies in order to take control of these objects today. This decision is another step towards eradicating dirty money from the UK," said Lisa Osofsky, the SFO Director.
According to the agency, Karimova received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from telecommunications companies in 2004-2012 in exchange for access to the Uzbek market. The Tashkent City Court sentenced Gulnara Karimova to 13 years and 4 months in prison in the case of organizing a criminal group, fraud and embezzlement in March 2020. Now the daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan is serving a sentence in a colony.