Innova Holding, Octobank and Mirziyoyev’s family: how journalists are being silenced after exposing a money-laundering network

Reporters investigating connections between Uzbek President Mirziyoyev’s family and the Russian laundering scheme Octobank are now facing threats.

The essence of these threats is that journalists are highly discouraged from writing about the activities of Octobank, which serves as a "laundromat" for laundering the "dirty" capital of the country’s top leadership and funneling Russian money out from under sanctions. They are also discouraged from investigating the ties between the president’s family and the bank, which is fully controlled by Mirziyoyev’s daughter, Saida, and her husband, Oybek Tursunov, who is the first deputy head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Furthermore, publications are being asked to delete materials about Octobank’s involvement in laundering Russian capital, particularly the information that Octobank receives a cash flow from Russian banks, which is then funneled through payment systems also controlled by the presidential family, moved to cryptocurrency exchanges (also under the control of Mirziyoyev’s family members) and then sent to offshore jurisdictions. Among the names that journalists are strongly advised not to mention in connection with Octobank’s activities, apart from Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Saida Mirziyoyeva, and Oybek Tursunov, is Dmitry Li, who is called the "overseer" for the president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, over the country’s payment market, and Alisher Usmanov, a Russian oligarch closely connected with Uzbek elites and the presidential family.

The situation is essentially standard - those who have been compromised by publicly available materials are demanding their removal. The peculiarity lies in the fact that the threats come from an unknown entity, about which there is very little information and which, purely formally, does not have ties with the people whose interests are affected by the publications on Octobank’s illegal activities.

The threats come from the email address of an Uzbek company, Innova Holding. However, examining registries is puzzling: such a company does exist, but what it does, if it does anything at all, is unclear. Its type of activity is indicated as "Computer programming activities," yet it couldn’t be found on the market - it has no website, no advertising, and no reviews. Nothing at all. Its charter capital of 5 million som equals about 390 dollars at the current rate. The company’s owner, Matluba Maxammat qizi Saidova, is not mentioned anywhere except in the registry of legal entities. The company is registered in a remote province. There is no reporting. There’s nothing apart from threats.

The company’s name is similar to several international companies, including Innova Holdings (Pvt) Ltd from Sri Lanka and Innova Group from Luxembourg, but this is merely a coincidence. However, it is hardly accidental - searching for Uzbek Innova Holding is difficult because search engines return dozens of results for well-known companies with almost identical names.

But there is a trail that leads to Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s family - it’s the email address from which threats are sent on behalf of Innova Holding: [email protected]. A thorough search yields the following result:

This address was used to file a complaint about a YouTube channel Erkin O’zbekiston ("Free Uzbekistan"), where the figure of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his entourage was discussed. The complaint came from the email [email protected], which belongs to Zafar Sabirov. It is claimed by "Free Uzbekistan" to be part of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s "troll factory."

Incidentally, the video in question has been restored and is available here. However, the point is not this, but that the use of the email address [email protected] to complain about political opposition to the President of Uzbekistan and to threaten journalists writing about his involvement in a bank laundering Russian money confirms - the threats in both cases come from the same source, and Shavkat Mirziyoyev is clearly connected to it.

Who Zafar Sabirov is, and whether he is a real person, could not be reliably determined, especially since it is quite a common last name in Uzbekistan. However, in the president’s entourage, there is someone named Kutlimurad Sabirov, who holds the position of chairman of the railway workers’ union. Kutlimurad Sabirov has shares in many projects of JSC "Uzbekistan Railways." He has a criminal record, and his nickname is "Potato." His fortune is estimated at $8.0 - $8.5 million. Kutlimurad Sabirov is one of Achilbay Ramatov’s close associates, who is a close ally of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and received the title of "Hero of Uzbekistan" from him in 2020.

However, whether Zafar Sabirov is related to Kutlimurad Sabirov is unknown. There is also Nadir Sabirov and Ruslan Sabirov in Uzbekistan’s parliament, but again - whether they are somehow connected to Zafar Sabirov, from whom (or on whose behalf) complaints about Free Uzbekistan’s publications on the activities of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and publications discussing his family’s connections to Octobank and its laundering of "dirty" money, including sanctionable Russian funds, are unknown.

But it’s clear that investigators have certainly hit a topic that is very displeasing to the family of the President of Uzbekistan since the "troll factory," previously used solely against the opposition, has been deployed. And this troll factory is evidently controlled by Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s family. Based on this, it can be asserted with almost one hundred percent certainty that whoever Zafar Sabirov is, in whose name the threat letters are sent, and Matluba Saidova, who is listed as the owner of Innova Holding, for which the same address is used as for mails with complaints against the opposition and threats to journalists, they are unequivocally associated with the President of Uzbekistan’s family. Ultimately, the threats and complaints originate from him.