Swiss court helps UK investigation into late Uzbek ruler’s daughter
- UK investigators are on the trail of £40 million used to buy property in Britain, which they believe may have been laundered
- Late Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov’s eldest daughter is in prison in Uzbekistan on embezzlement, criminal conspiracy charges
Swiss bank documents wanted by a UK investigation into the late Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov’s eldest daughter can be transferred to Britain, Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court decided in a ruling released on Wednesday.
The court dismissed a challenge by a company which opposed transferring the papers relating to accounts with banks in Geneva and Zurich, claiming they would not be of any use to the money-laundering investigation launched by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office relating to Gulnara Karimova.
She is currently in jail in Uzbekistan on embezzlement and criminal conspiracy charges.
As “first daughter”, Karimova was among Uzbekistan’s powerful elite, serving in diplomatic posts, including in Geneva, and tipped as a potential successor to Karimov.
She organised a fashion week, had her own jewellery line, released pop singles and ran entertainment television channels.
But several years before her father’s death in 2016, she suddenly fell from favour and feuded publicly with her mother and sister before being placed under house arrest.
