Elite laundering machine: Ovik Mkrtchyan used Gor Investment and Asia Alliance Bank to move illicit funds for Uzbekistan’s ruling circle

Elite laundering machine: Ovik Mkrtchyan used Gor Investment and Asia Alliance Bank to move illicit funds for Uzbekistan’s ruling circle

Ovik Mkrtchyan, supported by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, orchestrated a transnational money-laundering scheme using Asia Alliance Bank. The scheme drained billions of dollars, enriching the presidential family and feeding criminal networks.

This criminal network connects the Uzbek elite with oligarch Alisher Usmanov and the Solntsevskaya OPG (Organized Crime Group), legalizing illegally obtained funds through fictitious British companies and bypassing international sanctions.

We are publishing facts about the activities of Ovik Mkrtchyan to demonstrate the scale of his transnational "laundry," which operates under the patronage of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and transfers billions of dollars in the interests of the presidential family, oligarch Alisher Usmanov, and criminal groups.

Entrepreneur Ovik Mkrtchyan, together with his relatives, built a massive empire for transferring funds from Uzbekistan and Russia.

In various numerous investigations into Ovik Mkrtchyan’s activities, he is linked to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the former President of Uzbekistan, who was sentenced in 2015 to 13 years in prison for creating a criminal community and money laundering. However, facts indicate that Mkrtchyan operates under the patronage of the country’s current president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Journalists mention Ovik Mkrtchyan’s mysterious accomplice, Uktam Aripov. He may be related to the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Aripov, who took office with Mirziyoyev’s rise to power in 2016. The future President of Uzbekistan held the position of Prime Minister from 2003 to 2016. Abdulla Aripov served as Mirziyoyev’s deputy starting in 2005, overseeing telecommunications and relations with CIS partners. In 2012, Aripov was removed from his post following a scandal involving the mobile operator MTS-Uzbekistan.

Abdulla Aripov graduated from the Tashkent Electrotechnical Institute of Communications. In 1993, he took a position as a chief specialist at the Ministry of Communications and likely had a connection to the creation and establishment of the Uzbek-American enterprise "Uzdunrobita," the pioneer in the mobile communications market. From 2006, the company began operating under the MTS brand, and in 2012, it was suspected of embezzlement and tax evasion. This was the reason for Abdulla Aripov’s resignation.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev was aware of the dealings of his subordinate, who had to go into the shadows for a time and work for 4 years as an ordinary teacher at a Tashkent communications college. Investigations featured a sum of $500 million in bribes to Uzbekistan officials. These funds were transferred by Russian operators MTS and VimpelCom through shell companies from 2004 to 2011, and Abdulla Aripov, who was responsible for communications, surely knew who they were intended for; however, he remained silent and was returned to the government of Uzbekistan for it.

Another piece of evidence linking Ovik Mkrtchyan to the Uzbek authorities is the story of Asia Alliance Bank, established in 2009. Until 2018, the controlling stake in the bank was held by the company Gor Investment Ltd (UK). In 2019, the bank passed to the state due to debts, while experts noted that the amount of debt exceeded Gor Investment Ltd’s share. Yet in 2021, this company regained control over the bank, which is suspected in investigations of money laundering and capital flight.

Ovik Mkrtchyan was first listed as a person with significant control over Gor Investment Ltd in December 2017. From 2021 to 2024, the businessman’s daughter, Ornella-Afina Mkrtchyan, held the position of company director.

Gor Investment Ltd, established in 1999, positions itself as a company operating in the sustainable investment market, aiming to make the world a better and greener place. Among its projects are Technical Innovations (rare metal mining), New Medical Technologies, SNS-IX (a catalyst for online connectivity), Ecotech (innovations in technological sustainability), Gorbiopharm (a high-tech pharmaceutical project), Gor Logistic Limited (logistics), SKB (an energy company), the Youth Initiative Center, and Asia Alliance Bank.

Mountains of gold are offered to potential investors by a team of Ovik Mkrtchyan’s compatriots, including Ruben Mkrtchyan and Ornella Mkrtchyan, who currently serves as the director of GOR LOGISTIC LIMITED.

Through Gor Investment Ltd and Asia Alliance Bank, Ovik Mkrtchyan is linked to numerous investment companies operating worldwide. These companies are not under sanctions, allowing Mkrtchyan to move money out of not only Uzbekistan but also Russia.

It is widely known that the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, is a friend of the pro-Kremlin oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is suspected of organizing money laundering schemes involving the Uzbekistani Oktobank, owned by Iskander Tursunov. The beneficiaries of this credit institution are believed to be the president’s daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva, and her husband, Oybek Tursunov. It would be surprising if they did not utilize the bank and foreign companies of Ovik Mkrtchyan, who is part of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s team, for their criminal schemes.

Alisher Usmanov conducts business with State Duma deputy Andrey Skoch, who is linked to the Solntsevskaya OPG and Shakro Molodoy. Various sources have written extensively about this. It is unsurprising that Ovik Mkrtchyan is also linked to Russia’s "top thief." In effect, Mkrtchyan serves as a front for a transnational organized criminal group.

Ovik Mkrtchyan’s ties to international crime surfaced as far back as 2012. At that time, the Uzbekistani businessman was a shareholder in the Russian bank Volga-Kredit. Its primary shareholder, Aleksandr Manuylov (Sasha Samarskiy), was suspected of ties to the "Brothers’ Circle" (Bratskiy Krug) group, established by individuals from former USSR countries.

Volga-Kredit lost its license in 2014; the bank’s former head and shareholder, Tatyana Yerilkina, was sentenced in 2021 to 9.5 years in a general regime penal colony, but Aleksandr Manuylov and Ovik Mkrtchyan managed to escape unscathed. In 2023, the US Treasury Department even removed Manuylov from the list of members of the "Brothers’ Circle." it took the former banker a full 9 years to clear his name.

In Russia, from 2020 to 2023, Ovik Mkrtchyan was the owner of LLC TD Glavmyastorg, a company trading in meat products. The company last published financial statements in 2022; with a revenue of 11 million rubles, it suffered a loss of 379 million rubles, following a loss of 399 million rubles the previous year. Such figures indicate the possible withdrawal of funds.

Such small-scale dealings are of no interest to Ovik Mkrtchyan; billions can be drained through his foreign companies operating worldwide, bypassing sanctions. Mkrtchyan and his Asia Alliance Bank, along with Iskander Tursunov’s Oktobank, are under the patronage of the leadership of Uzbekistan. Therefore, the criminal activities of these credit institutions can only be stopped by Western organizations that undertake an investigation into the operations of these Uzbekistani "laundries."

Volga-Kredit lost its license in 2014; the bank’s former head and shareholder, Tatyana Yerilkina, was sentenced in 2021 to 9.5 years in a general regime penal colony, but Aleksandr Manuylov and Ovik Mkrtchyan managed to escape unscathed. In 2023, the US Treasury Department even removed Manuylov from the list of members of the "Brothers’ Circle." it took the former banker a full 9 years to clear his name.

In Russia, from 2020 to 2023, Ovik Mkrtchyan was the owner of LLC TD Glavmyastorg, a company trading in meat products. The company last published financial statements in 2022; with a revenue of 11 million rubles, it suffered a loss of 379 million rubles, following a loss of 399 million rubles the previous year. Such figures indicate the possible withdrawal of funds.

Such small-scale dealings are of no interest to Ovik Mkrtchyan; billions can be drained through his foreign companies operating worldwide, bypassing sanctions. Mkrtchyan and his Asia Alliance Bank, along with Iskander Tursunov’s Oktobank, are under the patronage of the leadership of Uzbekistan. Therefore, the criminal activities of these credit institutions can only be stopped by Western organizations that undertake an investigation into the operations of these Uzbekistani "laundries."