27 April 2022
Prosecutors in the Law Officers' Department have worked closely with officers of the States of Jersey Police and Jersey Customs and Immigration to secure convictions on all 22 counts of money laundering in the case of Umurzokov, Eshonkulov and Bataa. The defendants were sentenced to terms of imprisonment of up to four years by the Royal Court on 25th April.
The case is significant in that the launderers were a professional team who had been contracted to launder cash generated by a separate organised crime group ("OCG"). The laundering team targeted the Island to launder the proceeds of the OCG's offending. They were thwarted by the Island's law enforcement agencies and by its banks and businesses – who generally identified the risk that the funds were criminal in nature and turned down the group's attempts to transact. The case is also significant in that investigators and prosecutors then assembled a case strong enough to secure convictions on the "irresistible inference" that the funds were criminal in nature, despite the unknown nature of the original offending that generated the funds.
Jersey's Attorney General, Mark Temple QC, commented "This complex case is another illustration of the determination and agility of the law-enforcement agencies of this island, which can come as an unpleasant surprise to criminals from elsewhere."
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