Swiss Prosecutor Objects to Returning Gulnara Karimova Millions

A Swiss court ordered the release of funds seized in a money laundering probe into the daughter of the late Uzbek president. Switzerland's prosecutor objects to returning the money.

The Swiss attorney general has filed an appeal against a court order to return some of Gulnara Karimova’s money held in frozen accounts in Switzerland, Neue Zuercher Zeitung (behind paywall, in German) reported on Wednesday.

On December 17 the Swiss federal criminal court declared the confiscation of alleged kickbacks totaling $293.6 million legal, but said that $69.3 million should be returned to Karimova as the court could not prove that they stemmed from criminal sources, the report says.

Millions Frozen

The 49-year-old Karimova, daughter of deceased Uzbeki leader Islam Karimov, stands accused of taking more than $1 billion in bribes for mobile phone licenses from telecommunications firms Vimpelcom, Telia, and MTS.

More than 800 million Swiss francs ($873 million) in the case have been blocked since 2012, mainly at Geneva’s Lombard Odier. Karimova, who enjoyed diplomat status in Switzerland for a time but fell out of favor with her family in 2013, is currently imprisoned in Uzbekistan and seldom heard from publicly.