This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
------------------------

The mysterious Scottish shell companies linked to an Uzbek business empire

By:   []

Date: 2021-09

On the ground floor of one of Southside Glasgow’s trademark sandstone tenements, opposite a 1970s parade of discount supermarkets and real estate offices, is the official headquarters of a firm called Yardrock Development.

The modest address, a branch of corporate services giant Mailboxes Etc, may not scream “millions”. Yet that is exactly what this business has – at least on paper.

A new investigation has revealed that Yardrock Development is a major investor in a conglomerate linked to the family of Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The firm, according to filings made at Uzbekistan’s corporate registry, has an equity stake of nearly $21m in Orient Group, a booming network of companies fronted by a memberof Mirziyoyev’s extended family.

There is no way of knowing who ultimately owns or controls Yardrock Development – and therefore a chunk of Orient Group.

The Glasgow firm is a Scottish limited partnership or SLP, a kind of business structure described by anti-corruption group Transparency International as “the UK’s home-grown secrecy vehicle”.

Yardrock Development is not the only firm of its kind to invest in Orient Group, which has substantial interests in Uzbekistan’s banking, freight, agriculture, manufacturing, retail and real estate sectors.

In a report published this month, UzInvestigations, a group led by Professor Kristian Lasslett of Ulster University and supported by the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, found that eight SLPs, including Yardrock Development, owned a total of more than $128m worth of equity in Orient Group companies.

This represents a substantial shareholding in the conglomerate, which has reportedly thrived since Mirziyoyev replaced his predecessor, Soviet-era hardman Islam Karimov, after the latter’s death in 2016. UzInvestigations said the Orient Group had risen in prominence with the support of the Uzbek state.

One of Orient Group’s founders and shareholders is Oybek Umarov, a brother of Otabek Umarov, deputy head of the Presidential Security Service and Mirziyoyev’s son-in-law, UzInvestigations said. Another senior executive, it added, is the son of a serving minister.

This, concludes UzInvestigations, means Orient Group is “politically exposed”. That, the report’s authors stress, does not imply any wrongdoing. But it should, they argue, suggest a need for greater transparency, including over its ultimate beneficial ownership.

There is nothing in the report that links any of the eight SLPs that hold equity in the group with either of the Umarov brothers or any official or politician in Uzbekistan.
[END]

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/the-mysterious-scottish-shell-companies-linked-to-an-uzbek-business-empire/
[2] url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

OpenDemocracy via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/