Uzbek president dismisses top official over massive embezzlement PHOTO

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced the dismissal of Akmalxon Ortikov, director of the Agency for State Asset Management (SAMA), following the discovery of embezzlement involving billions of soms.

The President emphasised that the violations occurred due to systemic management failures and a lack of proper oversight, Caliber.Az reports via Uzbek media.

Investigations revealed that SAMA officials sold a land plot valued at at least 250 billion soms (approximately $20.6 million) for just 120 billion soms (approximately $9.9 million), causing significant budgetary losses.

Mirziyoyev sharply criticised the agencies responsible for institutional security and instructed the head of the National Security Service to personally review the accountability of staff overseeing SAMA and Uzbekneftegaz, where similar irregularities in fund usage and opaque transactions involving state assets were identified.

The President stressed that punishment for the uncovered crimes must be inevitable, and that the system controlling state assets requires deep transformation to prevent such cases in the future.

By Jeyhun Aghazada