Ex-CEO of Uzbekistan’s Zeromax Mirodil Jalolov is released

Ex-CEO of the Uzbek firm Zeromax Mirodil Jalolov, who was put in detention in 2010 for embezzlement and forgery, was released on January 8 on the order of a Tashkent court after a hearing that lasted one day.

He was ordered to pay a fine of about $2,000.

The firm, which was registered in Switzerland in 2005 when it reportedly was taken over by Gulnara Karimova, was shut down in 2010.

For several years, Zeromax was Uzbekistan’s largest employer and investor. It had holdings within Uzbekistan in industries ranging from food processing, cotton production, textile manufacturing, the energy sector, and sports.

In 2008, the assets of Zeromax were valued at around $4.5 billion. The company owed its creditors an estimated $500 million in unpaid debts, as some reports say.

It should be noted that Mirodil Jalolov was briefly released from detention in January 2017 but was re-arrested in March 2017 for what prosecutors said was a failure to pay compensation for damages to Uzbekistan’s economy.