Timeline of the Deal

Corruptistan: Uzbekistan
Investigation

Between 2007 and 2010, TeliaSonera, a telecom giant owned in part by the Swedish and Finnish governments, paid at least $381 million and promised an additional $75 million to companies controlled by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the President of Uzbekistan. In exchange, Coscom, TeliaSonera’s Uzbek subsidiary, got lucrative licenses needed to operate a mobile phone network from Uzbek regulators.

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Corruptistan: Uzbekistan
See the project
March 21, 2015

Neither Karimova nor her companies had any official standing with the state nor the expertise in mobile communications that was required by law to get such licenses. Throughout these negotiations, Karimova’s companies were often represented by Bekhzod Akhmedov, the CEO of a rival phone company, Uzdunrobita. He brokered the transactions and an internal TeliaSonera memorandum described Akhmedov as “Chief executive of Gulnara Karimova’s investment group.”

This timeline, much of which relies on a report issued by a Swedish law firm Mannheimer Swartling which investigated the case, explains how TeliaSonera entered the market and obtained its licenses.