DUSHANBE, October 29, 2008, Asia-Plus — The months-long trial over alleged corruption and bribery at the Tajik aluminum smelter resumed in the High Court in London on October 27.
According to Tajik Aluminum Company (Talco), Sadriddin Sharipov, director general of Talco, is representing the Tajik side in the dispute.
Talco claims the former director of the smelter, Abduqodir Ermatov accepted lavish bribes from its main supplier of alumina.
The October 28 Financial Times’ item “Tajikistan smelter case adds to Deripaska woes” noted that Mr. Ermatov is accused of receiving about $15 million (£10m) in benefits for entering into allegedly inflated contracts with companies controlled by Avaz Nazarov, a Tajik national who lives in London and still ranks as one of Central Asia’s richest men.
Mr. Ermatov, Mr. Nazarov and several other defendants deny wrongdoing and pursue their own multi-million pound counterclaim.
The Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska faces fresh scrutiny about his company’s role in an alleged $500 million fraud in Tajikistan.
According to The Financial Times, Rusal, the aluminum group controlled by Mr. Deripaska, was on Monday accused in the High Court of knowingly participating in a “grubby” scheme that allegedly divested Tajikistan’s most important industrial asset – a state-owned smelter not far from the country’s capital – of hundreds of millions of dollars. Lawyers representing Talco characterized Rusal and Mr. Deripaska as important players in the alleged conspiracy.
The Financial Times reported in May that the dispute was already one of the most expensive cases ever litigated in the UK, with the total legal bill estimated at more than £90m, or nearly 5 per cent of Tajikistan’s 2007 gross domestic product.
