Uzbek first daughter's associates detained in fraud probe

Three executives thought to be close associates of the Uzbek president's out-of-favour eldest daughter have been detained in a fraud probe, a source in the prosecutor's office told AFP on Tuesday. The detentions are the latest setback to befall Gulnara Karimova, a pop star and former diplomat who was long seen as a possible successor to her father Islam Karimov, 76, but who has recently suffered a spectacular fall from power.
"Officials of open joint-stock companies Terra Group, Prime Media and Gamma Promotion - Rustam Madumarov, Gayane Avakyan and Yekaterina Klyuyeva - were detained and currently are under arrest," a source at the prosecutor-general's office said on condition of anonymity. The three companies are believed to belong to Karimova. Prosecutors said in a statement late Monday that the authorities were questioning the three top managers over "large-scale tax evasion and deliberate concealment of foreign currency", giving no further details.
Madumarov is the owner of a DVD chain store called Nirvana that has been linked to Karimova's own business empire. He has been rumoured to be her long-term boyfriend, according to media reports. Madumarov was arrested on Monday at Karimova's apartment in Tashkent, reports said. Avakyan's name appeared in Western media last year in connection with a massive money-laundering and corruption case involving Swedish-Finnish telecom giant TeliaSonera.
Business associates of Karimova have previously come under investigation over allegations of money laundering in France and Switzerland. Karimova, 41, who has long managed to combine politics with a career as a glamorous singer, fashion designer and head of charitable foundations, has fallen from grace after an apparent falling-out with her family.
Her media empire including several television channels has been shut down, and more than a dozen boutiques selling Western clothes in Tashkent that are believed to belong to her or her business partners have been closed on allegations of tax evasion and other charges. Last month she posted a recording of an operatic aria on Twitter on her father's birthday in what appeared to be an attempt at reconciliation. President Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist since the collapse of the Soviet Union.