A collaborative investigation
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Business: Trading
Dustlik Customs Terminal (Kyrgyz Border)
Cost
$10,000,000
Location
Andijan Region, Uzbekistan
Status
Active
Links to Money Laundering
$17 million
Wired by Khabibula Abdukadyr's self-confessed money launderer to a German Abdukadyr company involved in the project.
Fake loans
Khabibula Abdukadyr's self-confessed money launderer showed reporters loan agreements he described as fake, worth $47 million, that he used to justify sending money to a German Abdukadyr company involved in the project.

This customs and logistics terminal sits on the main route for Chinese goods traveling to Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan. It includes a parking lot for trucks, unloading facilities, storage warehouses, shops, and service stations.

According to Uzbekistan’s state news agency, the terminal was receiving up to 400 vehicles per day in 2021, the year it opened for business. The volume of trade between Uzbekistan’s Andijan region and Kyrgyzstan had reached nearly $270 million the previous year.

Much of this trade is controlled by companies that belong to the Abduakdyr family. In fact, just a few hundred meters away, on the Kyrgyz side of the border, is another customs terminal that is also controlled by the Abdukadyrs. Just a few kilometers beyond is Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, Osh.

This facility is one of nine new customs terminals in which Uzbekistan’s government appears to be partnering with the Abdukadyr family. Though the government announced open tenders for the construction and operation of all nine terminals, it appears to have made that choice well in advance.

The evidence is contained in a set of files reporters obtained from Hyper Finance Group, a company that manages some of the family’s top construction projects.

Among them was a PowerPoint presentation describing a pilot project to build five of the terminals for $50 million. On its first slide, it displays the logos of the German Abdukadyr company AKA Group, Uzbekistan’s Customs Committee, and the state railway company. It also lists the same three entities as the project’s “initiators.”

The file’s metadata shows that it was last modified in August 2018, meaning that it was in preparation well before the terminals were put out to tender.

Reporters also obtained plans for all nine terminals contained in a folder dated November 16, 2018. Eight days later, President Mirziyoyev issued a decree ordering the construction of the same nine terminals.

Another document, its file name including the date December 12, 2018, lists the nine future terminals and marks four of them as a top priority. The following month, the State Customs Committee issued a tender for the construction of the same four terminals.

The tender announcement, which gave a deadline of only ten days, noted that the government’s potential partners needed to fulfill a number of conditions even to pass the pre-qualification phase. Among these was having experience building at least two terminals, including abroad, having five years experience in managing them, having a positive international image for at least two years, and having share capital of at least $7 million.

The Abdukadyr company that appears to have been awarded this initial tender fulfills none of these conditions. It does not even have a website, and in fact had been incorporated just three months before the tender was announced.

A second tender for the construction of the remaining five terminals was issued in January 2020. Тhe same Abdukadyr firm is listed as the investor of one of the terminals in a government FDI list, and has acquired a plot of land near the future site of another one.

Investor: ETLC (Uzbekistan)
  • Euroasia Transportation and Logistics Company (ETLC) is owned by Hyper Partners (Germany).
    • Hyper Partners is owned by Mustafa Palvan, a 22-year-old who appears to be a member of the Abdukadyr family: According to German corporate records, his official address is the Abdukadyrs’ luxurious seven-bedroom home in the prestigious Coombe Park area of southwest London. His last name, Palvan, is also used in corporate records by Khabibula Abdukadyr, two of his brothers, his children, and his wife.
Also Participating: AKA Group (Germany)
  • AKA Group was listed in internal documentation as the “initiator” of the project along with the Uzbekistan Customs Committee and Uzbekistan Railways.
  • AKA Group is owned by Khabibulla Abdukadyr’s wife, Maliya Rezi, under the name Mariya Palvan, and his son Aibibula Nuermaimaiti under the name Nur Muhammed Palvan.
  • AKA Group was founded by Khabibulla Abdukadyr.
Photo: Andijan regional government
Links to Money Laundering
$17 million
Wired by Khabibula Abdukadyr's self-confessed money launderer to a German Abdukadyr company involved in the project.
Fake loans
Khabibula Abdukadyr's self-confessed money launderer showed reporters loan agreements he described as fake, worth $47 million, that he used to justify sending money to a German Abdukadyr company involved in the project.