Jamshed Ziyoyev, former head of Tajprombank, which is currently under liquidation, has reportedly been arrested. He is charged with illegal provision of loans and misappropriation of customers’ savings.
A reliable source says Jamshed Ziyoyev was detained yesterday and he is currently being held in a temporary detention facility in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district.
According to him, Jamshed Ziyoyev is charged with illegal provision of loans and misappropriation of customers’ savings.
Meanwhile, bank liquidators say they do not have information about detention of Ziyoyev. They noted that they saw him for the last time in the bank’s head office last Monday.
Representatives of the law enforcement authorities neither confirmed nor denied this information.
Founded in October 1995 as an all-purpose retail bank, Tajprombank, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has 21 branches, 11 departments and 15 money-transfer offices across the country. The controlling shares of the company were held by Jamshed Ziyoyev.
Assets on Tajprombank’s books include dozens of offices and an unspecified number of residential properties.
Signs the lender was in distress began to emerge in 2015. In the middle of 2016, Ziyoyev was removed as head of the bank, which was placed under crisis administration. In December, the National Bank declared it was refinancing Tajprombank to the tune of 450 million somoni ($56 million) and reappointed Ziyoyev to his old job and ordered him to restore the lender to health. The bailout money was raised through the emission of somoni-denominated sovereign bonds that were converted into liquid cash by the National Bank.
But then two months later, the National Bank performed yet another about-face and decided to shutter Tajprombank, together with another recipient of bailout funds, Fononbank.
