In one example, he told them that a company regularly bribed Bakiyev “in effect for the authority and the ability to operate in Kyrgyzstan,” according to the transcript.

In the interview with Bloomberg, Gourevitch elaborated, saying that Bakiyev would ask him to pick up $2 million in bribes from the company’s office. “I would go there to work on something unrelated,” Gourevitch said. “He would say, ‘As long as you’re going down there, they have a package for me.’”

Bespoke Suits

Gourevitch also told investigators about alleged bribes in connection with fuel contracts for a U.S. air base operated in Kyrgyzstan during the war in Afghanistan.

Describing the incident to Bloomberg, Gourevitch said it occurred while he, Bakiyev and a representative for a company were buying suits from a bespoke suit designer flown to Kyrgyzstan from Italy. At the Hyatt hotel where they were trying on the goods, he watched the businessman “hand over a bag full of money” as a bribe to Bakiyev, Gourevitch said in the interview.

The good times came to an end, according to Gourevitch, after the 2010 coup that toppled Bakiyev’s father.

Chechen Rebels

While the Bakiyevs made it out of the country, to Belarus, Gourevitch was left behind, a wanted man for aiding the old regime, he told Bloomberg. He said he was soon captured by Chechen rebels, who offered to get him out of Kyrgyzstan for a price. He made it across the border, into Kazakhstan, by lying in the backseat of a car, covered in blankets. Gourevitch’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, who was in contact with Gourevitch throughout the events, also described the kidnapping in court during the sentencing hearing.

He was ultimately saved by Maksim Bakiyev, who permitted Gourevitch to fly to Belarus on a private plane dispatched for family members, he said. Bakiyev demanded that Gourevitch manage his investments as a way to pay off the $2 million he wanted for freeing him, according to Gourevitch.

They soon turned to an alleged insider-trading scheme with two tipsters based in the U.K., according to his interview and documents from criminal cases. (The two men, and a third from Long Island, later pleaded guilty to insider-trading related crimes but received no jail time.)