This is our story. We started an investment fund based in Sweden/Hong Kong. In 2009 we made our first investment in Kyrgyzstan. We own 45% of OcOO Trilight. The other 55% is owned by Nurgazy Nurgaziev. Problems started soon after we invested. Financial Police and its successor, State Service for Combating Economic Crimes (GSPEB) opened and closed investigations 4 times. Couple of times, it was stated in writing that the reason for closing the case was unjustified, hence it was reopened. A criminal case was opened, and then suspended. We wrote to the President of Kyrgyzstan. The suspension of the criminal case was lifted. I am unsure about the current status. The case is probably closed. You can read more about our story here.

In spite of the process we have gone through, and are going through, there are many positives. We received support from many Government institutions. This includes Ministry of Economy, Prime Minister’s office, Presidential Administration, Investment Promotion Agency and Kyrgyz Embassy in Germany. Financial Police, GSBEP and Prosecutor General have also been supportive, but not fully. They reopened the case and acknowledged that the reason for closing the case was unjustified. But the case was later closed.

There are also many non-Government organisations that have been supportive.

I was involved in setting up SME Investor Attractiveness (SIA) with Anticorruption Business Council. SIA’s goal was to improve the investment climate for foreign investors. SIA secured support from the leading 5 political parties. You can read more about SIA here.

SIA worked closely with many Government officials. I personally observed that many officials genuinely wanted to do things properly, to make things better for the country. This is very promising. It is unfortunate that a few people have other ideas. I cannot say what percentage of people want to do things right. But my guess is that it is a lot. A small number of people can influence the majority.

The article, The 25% Revolution—How Big Does a Minority Have to Be to Reshape Society?, found that it takes just 25 percent of the population to change the mind of anywhere from 72 to 100 percent of the population.

In our case, if Nurgazy Nurgaziev did things properly, we would have invited EU companies to Kyrgyzstan, invested more and expanded operations. This would have created more jobs and benefitted many people. Nurgazy would have benefitted even more. Instead he wanted immediate benefits.

There are laws that are not being enforced. We signed a contract with Nurgazy Nurgaziev but he ignored it. He knows that the legal system is weak.

We are optimistic that we will resolve our case. There are many people who want to see that things are done properly. This is promising. We will keep continuing to take action until justice is done.

Note: These are two most recent letters I received from the prosecutor regarding a criminal case.

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Opening of Criminal Case March 2018

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