Audit reveals huge fraud in Tajikistan

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — A chairman of Tajikistan's Central Bank diverted more than $850 million to a company run by himself and his family, according to an independent audit posted on the bank's Web site Monday.

The Ernst & Young audit said that under Murodali Alimardonov's stewardship, from 1996 to 2008, the Central Bank paid about $856 million to his Credit-Invest company, a general purpose investment concern. According to the audit, a further $221.5 million allocated for investment in the cotton industry in 2004-2007 remains unaccounted for.

Gross financial irregularities are common in the former Soviet nation, which borders China and Afghanistan in central Asia. The International Monetary Fund last year demanded repayment of $47 million in loans amid charges that Tajik authorities doctored data on national reserves.

However, the sums of money allegedly appropriated by Alimardonov, who has served as deputy prime minister in charge of agriculture since leaving the Central Bank job last year, are enormous for the impoverished nation, whose economy has been wracked by severe power shortages and lack of investment.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSNVaySagl0yNjskdFFAL0nYaPEQD97HKJN80

[Bossy Monkey]

1. And he didn't email me offering some of the dough? The nerve!

Seriously, a tragedy. Hope they can get some of the money back.

[izquierdista]

2. I thought Madoff was in jail

How the travel plans of Republicans got from the society page to "Latest Breaking News" is beyond me.