The US authorities are looking to seize $500mn from accounts in Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland, alleging they are the proceeds of corrupt payments in Uzbekistan by two Russian telecoms companies, Mobile Telesystems OJSC (MTS) and Vimpelcom. It is suggested that the money is linked to dishonest payments totalling $300mn made by the telecoms companies to "official A", so that he/she would influence the government in Uzbekistan in relation to mobile phone licences and radio frequencies. Assets that are targeted include Bank of New York Mellon Investment Servicing (International) in Ireland.
The US authorities are looking to seize $300mn from accounts in Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland, alleging they are the proceeds of corrupt payments in Uzbekistan by two Russian telecoms companies, Mobile Telesystems OJSC (MTS) and Vimpelcom. It is suggested that the money is linked to dishonest payments totalling $500mn made by the telecoms companies to "official A", so that he/she would influence the government in Uzbekistan in relation to mobile phone licences and radio frequencies. Assets that are targeted include Bank of New York Mellon Investment Servicing (International) in Ireland.