Assistant mayors and bank officials caught in corruption scandal in Fergana

A corruption scheme involving bank officials and assistant governors has been uncovered in the Fergana region, according to a report by the State Security Service of Uzbekistan.

An employee of the Uzbekistan Banking Services Center, part of the Joint-Stock Commercial People's Bank, conspired with the center’s deputy manager to demand 10 million soums in exchange for facilitating 66 million soums in loans under the names of two citizens.

During an operation jointly carried out by the State Security Service and the State Anti-Corruption Agency, the banker was caught red-handed while receiving the bribe. A preliminary investigation revealed that the same banker had previously accepted 600,000 soums in bribes, and the deputy manager had received 920,000 soums in a separate transaction.

Further inquiries uncovered a larger fraud operation involving two assistant khokims (deputy heads) of mahalla citizen assemblies in the Uzbek district, officials from the Uzbekistan Central Bank’s branch of the People's Bank, and the head of a wholesale-trading LLC. These individuals allegedly secured 153 million soums in misappropriated loans under fake identities and forged documents, which were subsequently cashed out and embezzled.

A criminal case has been initiated against the suspects under Part 3, Clause “v” of Article 168 (fraud) of the Criminal Code. Investigations are currently ongoing.

Notably, the deputy head of the Central Bank's branch was previously convicted in 2000 and again in 2015 for fraud (Article 168, Part 1) and bribery (Article 211, Part 1), but reportedly failed to learn from past offenses.