Riga district court sentenced businessman Mohammad Gulami (Latvian citizen of Afghan origin) to eight years in prison on July 6, according to Kriminal.lv.
His wife, Valentina Gulami, and Larisa Karpenko were sentenced to 7½ and 5 years in prison each, respectively.
They were reportedly found guilty of large-scale embezzlement (Article 179 (3) of Latvia’s Penal Code). They have reportedly stolen more than 9 million euros worth of Tajik cotton (totaling 80 rail cars).
The court also ruled that Mr. Gulami must pay the €9 million damage to the injured party.
The crime was reportedly committed in 2012. Mohammad Gulami and his accomplices reportedly re-registered the cotton to the third party and took it from warehouses of the Latvian Customs Service.
Mr. Mohammad Gulami denies all accusations brought against him. According to him, W.E.E,S.A. Company in October 2012 received an order from Logistic-Ekspress (Estonian company) to hand over the cotton that had been stored at the W.E.E,S.A. customs warehouse in Jurmala to Silver Star International LLC (USA).
The order was reportedly signed by the head of the Logistic-Ekspress Board and the only owner of Logistic-Ekspress, Andrei Stepovoi, who is national of Ukraine. But in December 2012, Stepovoi was replaced with Tajik national Davlatkhon Azizov, says Kriminal.lv.
Vesti.lv reports this subject had been discussed at the highest level: Tajik President Emomali Rahmon had asked his Latvian counterpart Andris Bērziņs (he was President of Latvia from 2011 to 2015) to help with finding the Tajik cotton stolen in Latvia.
