m.knews.kg
The U.S. authorities have asked European counterparts in Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland to seize about $1 billion in assets of Vimpelcom, MTS and TeliaSonera in connection with a wide-ranging criminal probe of alleged corruption by those telecom companies and intermediaries close to the daughter of Uzbekistan's president, The Wall Street Journal reported with reference to the court documents and people with direct knowledge of the criminal investigation.
A Justice Department official confirmed the U.S. authorities aimed to seize $300 million in Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The U.S. authorities are reported to have also asked Sweden for assistance in seizing another $30 million, a sum they say is also related to the alleged corrupt activity. Similar steps have been taken in Switzerland to freeze some $ 640 million, according to the report.
The U.S. investigation has revealed that Russian-based mobile telecoms giants Vimpelcom and МТS, and Swedish-Finnish operator TeliaSonera paid bribes to Uzbek officials to obtain mobile communications business in Uzbekistan. The official bribery accusations under the case have not been raised against any of the persons or companies. The bribery scandal first surfaced in 2012, when the Swiss authorities detained the associates of Ms. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of the president of Uzbekistan, and Swedish reporters broadcast an investigative report about TeliaSonera's activities in Uzbekistan.
The U.S. intervention could help speed up the far-reaching international probe, which is said to have been bogged down by the complexities of the cross-border judicial cooperation, according to the publication.
MTS Ukraine, 99% of the voting shares of which are owned by Prelludium B.V. (the Netherlands), is one of the largest domestic mobile operators. The company provides GSM and CDMA 450-based services with more than 20 million subscribers.
The operator belongs to the international telecoms group MTS, the principal owner of which is Russian holding company AFK Sistema.