DUSHANBE, September 2, 2011, Asia-Plus — A Tajik company has won a case against a bank partly owned by President Emomali Rahmon”s brother-in-law, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.
The northern Sughd province”s economic court ordered on August 30 that the director of the Oriyon Bank — which is co-owned by Hasan Sadulloyev, Rahmon”s brother-in-law — pay the equivalent of $800,000 to the Bakht wheat company for grain purchased more than a decade ago, Bakht head Nouriddin Mahkamov told RFE/RL.
The Bakht company has been seeking the money for a wheat delivery made to the Qayroqqum flour plant in 1998.
Oriyon Bank took control of Qayroqqum in 2003, promising to pay off the plant”s debts. Bakht filed a claim for the debt but Oriyon then said it was not obligated to repay that debt. Oriyon officials claimed the original owners of the flour plant had embezzled a large amount of money before the bank acquired the company.
The Bakht company pointed to a 2003 court decision ordering Oriyon to repay the money to Bakht. Oriyon took the case to court earlier this year and had the verdict overturned.
Bakht appealed to a Dushanbe court, which sent the case back to the Sughd economic court for review.
