A 60-page civil-forfeiture complaint filed by the Justice Department accuses VimpelCom and MTS, which both trade on the Nasdaq exchange in New York, of making more than $500 million in corrupt payments to offshore companies set up to benefit a “relative of the president of Uzbekistan” starting in 2004.

Karimova isn’t mentioned in the complaint by name but she is the relative in question, two people involved in the probe said. Swiss, Dutch and Swedish officials are also investigating payments to shell companies tied to Karimova. So far, no company or person has been publicly charged as part of the U.S. and European investigations.

Before her Twitter account went silent in February 2014, Karimova repeatedly tweeted denials of accusations of corruption. Her former spokesman, London-based public relations firm Davidson Ryan Dore’s Locksley Ryan, who announced her house arrest last year, said she was dropped as a client when friends and family stopped paying the bills. Calls and e-mails to the president’s office and the Foreign Ministry in Tashkent seeking comment weren’t answered.


Career Casualties


Lunder, a former VimpelCom chief executive officer and chairman, was held for six days while officials searched his home and questioned other witnesses in the case. When he was finally released, the stunned executive, who says he’s never been to Uzbekistan or even met Karimova, told reporters he’d done nothing wrong. He remains under investigation in Norway on suspicion of corruption.

“I have built my entire professional career on creating trust,” Lunder, 54, said Nov. 11 in Oslo. “I have tried to cooperate with the Americans and the Dutch.”

By then, Fredriksen had suspended Lunder. In the past month, Svein Aaser, the chairman of Telenor, VimpelCom’s other major shareholder, has been ousted by the Norwegian government and Telenor’s chief financial officer and general counsel have been temporarily suspended. CEO Sigve Brekke said he had no reason to believe the men were involved in corruption.

Aaser declined to comment after stepping down, saying only that he and the Norwegian government had different views on how to deal with the situation. The two suspended executives said in a statement they handled issues related to VimpelCom "in a correct manner.”


Settlement Talks


The potential financial costs of the case ballooned in June, when the Justice Department asked a New York court to seize $300 million held in Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Clearstream Banking SA accounts in Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Prosecutors said the money was linked to corrupt payments VimpelCom and MTS made to offshore companies set up to benefit “the relative” of Karimov and then laundered via correspondent accounts in New York.