Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — A criminal group in Tashkent Region allegedly defrauded more than 400 citizens of over 17 billion soums by offering to arrange interest-free and preferential loans, the press service of the Tashkent Region Interior Department said.
According to the department, the suspects posted fake online advertisements offering loans without interest or on preferential terms. Interested citizens were invited to luxury offices rented in advance.
The group offered to arrange loans of 100 million soums in each citizen’s name. Borrowers were promised half of the amount, while the remaining 50 million soums would be retained by the company. The suspects also claimed that the company would make the monthly loan payments on behalf of the borrowers.
In practice, the suspects used the phones of more than 400 citizens to arrange loans in their names and took half of the borrowed funds. After some time, the citizens began receiving demands from banks to repay the resulting debts.
A criminal case has been opened under Article 168 of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code, which covers fraud. Six members of the group have been detained as suspects.
The Tashkent Region Interior Department urged citizens to be wary of suspicious online offers for “interest-free loans,” “loans with very low interest rates” and “loans without documents.”
