Uzbek businessman hired George Bush aide to target Cement Holding

Uzbek businessman hired Texas lobbyist to target Cement Holding

ICIJ finds former Bush aide, Stephen Payne,was employed by Uzbek businessman, Airpov, to orchestrate a campaign against United Cement Group and its CEO, Ulugbek Shadmanov.

“Mr Shadmanov controls the largest cement holding in Central Asia which has put a target on his back”, says human rights advocate and crisis manager Radha Stirling. Stirling has suggested possible Magnitsky sanctions against Uzbekistan over issues of corruption, human rights abuses and torture. “There are certain actors in Uzbekistan who will stop at nothing to appropriate strategic assets”. Shadmanov has strived to operate the cement giant outside of the influence of political, foreign and criminal agencies but this has made him some enemies. Stirling commented, “it is precisely because of this that he has been the victim of smear campaigns and treated like a criminal, arrested and unlawfully extradited from Dubai without so much as a court hearing.