Prosecutor’s Office officials detained for taking $108,000 bribe (video)

In the city of Bekobod, Tashkent region, officials of the Prosecutor’s Office were detained while receiving a $25,000 bribe. It was later revealed that they had previously taken an additional $108,000. This was reported by the State Security Service.

According to the report, during an operation carried out in Bekobod, the head of the Guliston district department of the Economic Crimes Department under the General Prosecutor’s Office and a senior operative of the Bekobod city department were caught red-handed while receiving $25,000 from a citizen as a bribe.

It was revealed that the officials had promised to secure a favorable outcome in a criminal case currently being reviewed by the Zangiota district court under Article 184, Part 3 of the Criminal Code (tax evasion) involving the informal owner of four LLCs operating in the Zangiota district and others. They also pledged to have the results of tax inspections conducted by the Syrdarya regional tax department on two LLCs declared invalid.         

The preliminary investigation established that the officials of the Economic Crimes Department had earlier received $108,000 from the informal owner of the LLCs in exchange for reducing the amount of financial damage identified during the tax inspection.

Currently, a criminal case has been opened against them under Article 168, part 4 (a) (fraud) and Articles 28 and 211, part 3 (a) (bribery) of the Criminal Code, and they have been placed under arrest. Investigative procedures are ongoing.

It is worth noting that earlier, the Deputy Governor of Syrdarya region was detained for taking a bribe of 10,000 US dollars, while in the Navoi region, an assistant to the governor was caught accepting a bribe of 40 million soums.