Rajabali Odinayev, the owner of Umed-88, one of Tajikistan’s largest gas retailers, has been detained by anticorruption officers on suspicion of tax evasion and large-scale fraud.
A source at the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption says the owner of one of the country’s largest chains of gas filling stations is suspected of goods smuggling, tax evasion and document fraud.
Odinayev was arrested on October 14 right after President Emomali Rahmon harshly criticized him during a meeting with local businesspeople, the source added.
Meanwhile, people close to the company told Asia-Plus last week that Odinayev had fled the country with his family and was now in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Recall, President Rahmon noted on October 14 that Umed-88 had some years ago received a 170 million somoni loan ($19.3 million at the current rate) at 18 percent interest with facilitation from the Ministry of Finance, but that the company had failed to pay the money back.
“Sixty million somoni of this money have gone to paying off debts to Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB), and 25 million has gone to Amonatbonk. The rest he [Odinayev] just spent for his own needs. He should answer before the law. Government money is the money of the people,” the president said.
It is to be noted that the 18 percent interest rate is considered relatively preferential compared to what is offered by Tajik banks. For comparison, the weighted average interest rate for loans in the national currency is 30.46 percent.
After president’s criticism directed at the founder of gas retailer Umed-88, workers started to take down Umed-88 signs across the country. People at gas filling stations say the stations now belong to another company. They refrain to name the new owner of the Umed-88 chain of gas filling stations.
The Umed-88 head office, which is located in Dushanbe’s Sino district (behind the Abu Ali Sino monument), is sealed.
Umed-88 had been engaged in supplying fuels to Tajikistan and selling oil products in the country for more than twenty years. It had more than 70 gas filling stations across Tajikistan.
Until this year, Umed-88 along with Gapromneft-Tajikistan, Tajik Petroleum and Aurum Spika had been on the list of companies dominating Tajikistan’s fuel market. This year, the company was removed from the list as its share on the fuel market of Tajikistan fell.
