At the end of January, multiple platforms released an interview with Iskandar Tursunov, Chairman of the Board and principal shareholder of Octobank. While the interview offers little in the way of substantive information, it appears that Tursunov is attempting to mitigate the rising tide of negative sentiment surrounding the bank.
In his interview, Tursunov speaks very vaguely about the bank’s activities, emphasizing that Octobank has “repaid problem assets amounting to 324 billion soms”, carried out rebranding (the bank was previously called Ravnaq-bank), and is developing “new high-tech solutions”. In fact, one could call this interview ordinary advertising, if not for certain aspects.
As already mentioned, Iskandar Tursunov speaks very vaguely about the bank’s activities. About those “high-tech solutions”, for example. Apart from general phrases, no specifics were mentioned. And it is this specificity that sounds in the sharp materials, the negativity from which Iskandar Tursunov is trying to dispel in his interview.
The main question Tursunov circumvented is Octobank’s involvement in laundering criminal funds (in particular, from drug trafficking and illegal casinos) and the withdrawal from under sanctions of Russian money, which the bank is blamed for. Not a word was mentioned about the materials claiming that payments from the gambling market, controlled in Uzbekistan by the head of the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP) Dmitriy Lee, who has taken over the entire cryptocurrency market in the country, go through Octobank. In particular, it is about money from the UzNext exchange, which he fully controls. Dmitry Lee’s name is never mentioned in Iskandar Tursunov’s interview, nor is Octobank’s involvement in accepting payments from the gambling market not only in Uzbekistan but also in Russia. Although it was thanks to Dmitry Lee that third-party payment systems servicing the high-risk traffic of the country were ousted from Uzbekistan.
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Meanwhile, information repeatedly appeared that Octobank was noticed in suspiciously active operations with Russian Promsvyazbank, Gazprombank, VTB, MTS-bank, MIN-bank (which in 2023 was merged with the state-owned Promsvyazbank) and “Russian Standard”. According to the Telegram channel “Payment Shield”, this is about funds passing through the VAVADA casino. The main money flow is from Russia, Octobank is used for writing off the funds of Russian issuers.
The fact of the bank’s connection with the family of the President of Uzbekistan is also kept silent. Many claim that the real beneficiaries of Octobank are the president’s daughter Saida Mirziyoyeva and his son-in-law Oybek Tursunov, holding top positions in the country. It was after the ascent of the presidential family to power in Uzbekistan that the change of shareholders in what was then Ravnaq-bank began. Iskandar Tursunov, who owned a 19% stake in Ravnaq-bank, initially bought a controlling stake of 52.15% from Sarvar Fayziyev, then ousted smaller shareholders and ultimately controls 99.2% of the shares. This rapid leap from minor shareholder to full owner of the bank raises questions.
However, if we assume that behind Iskandar Tursunov stands the family of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, everything falls into place – both the compliance of the other shareholders and the origin of Tursunov’s funds. And whether these funds actually existed, or whether the owners of the bank were made an offer they could not refuse – is also a question.
Furthermore, not a word is mentioned about Octobank’s involvement in the process of legalizing Russian funds, which have been flowing through the bank in a generous stream and settling in offshore jurisdictions since 2022. Perhaps these funds are what helped Octobank get rid of a portfolio of problem loans, which was indeed huge and looked simply threatening.
As of August 1, 2023, the portfolio of hopeless loans in Ravnaq Bank amounted to 80.5% of the entire loan portfolio. Iskandar Tursunov claims, “our clients have fully repaid problem assets amounting to 324 billion soms”. But here he is somewhat disingenuous, although there are indeed no problem loans in Octobank now. But not because “clients repaid them”. It’s because the bank simply wrote them off.
But the question arises – to whom were these loans issued, and why did the bank not collapse after such an unprecedented act of generosity? We are talking about a huge sum by Uzbekistan’s standards – 25 million dollars. Many European banks would go bankrupt from such “write-off”. But not Octobank. Where does the money come from?
Most likely, from the same place Octobank currently draws its working capital – from Russia. For people who drive their dirty capitals from Russia through Octobank, it was important that the bank was trouble-free. Therefore, the loans were simply written off. And they were certainly not issued to people from the street. In Ravnaq Bank, representatives of the Uzbekistani elite borrowed, and everyone understood that these so-called loans were non-repayable.
In essence, they were slightly disguised bribes for non-interference in the bank’s affairs. Which has long been closely associated with Russians Alisher Usmanov and Andrei Skoch, prominent representatives of Russian organized crime figures within the higher echelons of modern Russian power structures. Both of them owned Kapitalbank in Uzbekistan, which they were forced to “sell” due to sanctions. Usmanov sold the bank’s stake to his managers, who then sold it to the Uzbek company Finance TCI LLC, part of the Uzum holding, bringing together the assets of several Uzbekistani entrepreneurs from Alisher Usmanov’s homeland.
The deal in Uzbekistan was organized and conducted by Iskandar Tursunov, behind whom stood representatives of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s family, with whom Usmanov and Skoch closely collaborate. That is the whole secret of such “generosity” of Octobank, which wrote off problem loan debts. After that, Ravnaq Bank rebranded, changed its name and some management. And switched to servicing Russian capitals and underground gambling market funds, which are channeled through it by Dmitry Lee.
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The role of Iskandar Tursunov, a professional banker, in all these processes is unclear. On the one hand, he is the nominal holder for the President of Uzbekistan’s daughter and son-in-law. But, on the other hand, at least because of his position, he has concentrated in his hands huge volumes of compromising information about the President’s family and senior Uzbekistani officials whose money goes through Octobank. The same applies to the Russian funds going through Octobank. It is unlikely that the names of these Russians are limited to Skoch and Usmanov.
Thus, Iskandar Tursunov is clearly sitting on a powder keg called the chairman’s chair of Octobank. What this will result in is still an open question. But those clumsy attempts to smooth over negativity that Tursunov is making in his interview look frankly pathetic.
By the way, no one has wondered, especially in light of everything written above, – why leading Uzbekistani banker Iskandar Tursunov has only one photo that has been circulating from material to material for years? Why wasn’t he photographed from different angles during the “interview”? Or is one photo enough for the nominal holder? Doubts arise that it is actually Iskandar Tursunov in this photograph. However, let’s not delve into conspiracy theories, although the fact is indeed strange.
