Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) —  Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General has charged Lombard Odier, one of Geneva’s most prestigious banks, and a former employee with involvement in money laundering linked to activities of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s first president, Islam Karimov, according to a Swiss regulatory body.

The charges relate to a case in which, on 28 September 2023, prosecutors submitted an indictment to the Federal Criminal Court against Karimova and another individual. They are accused of participating in a criminal organization known as The Office, whose operations spanned multiple countries, as well as laundering proceeds from illicit activities between 2005 and 2012. A substantial portion of these funds was allegedly deposited in accounts at Lombard Odier.

The investigation found that Lombard Odier and its former employee, responsible for client services, played a pivotal role in concealing the origins of The Office’s revenues. The bank is accused of failing to adhere to anti-money laundering protocols, neglecting internal procedures, and ignoring enhanced due diligence requirements for high-risk transactions and politically exposed persons (PEPs).

The former employee is alleged to have actively engaged with members of The Office and Karimova both before and during his tenure at Lombard Odier. He purportedly facilitated the opening of nine accounts for members of The Office, knowing that the funds originated from corruption in Uzbekistan’s telecommunications sector. Furthermore, he allegedly obscured the true source of the funds, employed proxy beneficiaries, and failed to disclose the actual owner of the assets—reportedly Karimova—to the bank’s management.

Prosecutors claim the accused misrepresented one company associated with The Office as a legitimate business, despite its sole purpose being to mask illicit transactions. He allegedly concealed information about the true origins of financial activities and obstructed the compliance department’s monitoring efforts, violating Swiss laws.

In 2011 and 2012, the accused reportedly enabled a member of The Office to access a bank vault linked to these accounts to remove or relocate documents that provided legal cover for suspicious transactions.

Both the bank and its former employee face charges of aggravated money laundering. According to The Financial Times, Lombard Odier facilitated the concealment of billions of dollars obtained by Karimova through corrupt schemes tied to Uzbekistan’s state contracts.

Karimova has also been implicated in one of Switzerland’s largest bankruptcy cases—the collapse of Zeromax, a company registered in the canton of Zug. Zeromax, which focused on investments in Uzbekistan, declared bankruptcy in 2010 with debts amounting to US$4.6 billion.