Top managers of the branch of Tajprombank (Tajik Joint-Stock Commercial Industrial Bank for Reconstruction and Development) in the Shahrinav district have got lengthy jail terms for embezzlements of customers’ savings and jewelries pawned in the bank.
The official website of the Prosecutor-General’s Office reported on October 5 that a court in Dushanbe’s Sino district sentenced Mr. S. Qurbonov, the head of the Tajprombank branch in Shahrinav, and Ms. S. Teshayeva, the chief accountant at the Tajprombank branch in Shahrinav, to 16 and 8 ½ years in prison respectively on September 13.
Besides, Mr. I. Ghafourov, cashier at the Tajprombank branch in Shahrinav, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Mr. H. Safarov, senior loan specialist at the Tajprombank branch in Shahrinav, and Mr. F. Hodiyev, senior loan specialist at the Tajprombank branch in Shahrinav, were sentenced to nine years in prison each.
They were reportedly found guilty of embezzling customers’ savings and jewelries pawned in the bank during the period from 2013 to February 2016. The damage caused to the bank has reportedly been estimated at 188,000 U.S. dollars, 95,182 somoni and 278,738 Russian rubles.
Recall, parliament in December 2016 approved a government decree to issue bonds worth around half a billion dollars with which to recapitalize four distressed banks, including Tajprombank.
However, Tajprombank never saw any of the $56 million earmarked for it as the National Bank on February 24 announced it was pulling the license of Tajprombank.
Customers at the bank have been paid out 17,500 somoni (around $2,000) out of the state’s Individuals Deposits Insurance Fund. Anybody with more than that amount of money in the bank is still waiting to see how much they will get in the end.
Assets on Tajprombank’s books that include dozens of offices and an unspecified number of residential properties are estimated at 450 million somoni.
