Uzbek businessman hired George Bush aide to target Cement Holding

“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.

A U.S. political strategist says an Uzbek businessman asked him to lobby for sanctions against a huge cement manufacturer owned by a political and business rival over the business’s alleged Russia links.

Stephen Payne, a top partner in Texas lobbying firm Linden Strategies, says that at his Uzbek client’s behest, he briefed Congressman Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican, last year about possible sanctions violations by the Uzbek cement company, known as the United Cement Group.

Payne, a one-time aide to former President George W. Bush, said he and his staff didn’t urge any specific action, but left it to Hunt and his staff to decide what to do with the information.

In remarks on the House floor in March 2024, Rep. Hunt expressed concern that U.S. focus on “Russian assets” in Europe had “overlooked assets and agents in former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan” — and then specifically mentioned the Cyprus-registered cement company without elaborating.

Hunt would also write to the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions unit for a “formal inquiry” into “potential violations” of U.S. Russia sanctions by the Uzbek cement company, according to documents seen by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Because of UCG’s alleged Russia links, Hunt expressed concern about UCG’s 2022 acquisition of a state-owned cement plant in Uzbekistan. A few days later, Payne made a $3,300 donation to Hunt’s campaign.

A spokesperson for UCG’s owner, prominent Uzbek businessman Ulugbek Shadmanov, said the U.S. Treasury conducted a “light investigation” of the company for sanctions violations after Hunt’s remarks, but it “concluded without any allegation of Russian involvement.”

Linden Strategies was acting on behalf of Uktam Aripov, a little-known Canada-based entrepreneur who, Payne alleges, was seeking to convince the U.S. to sanction UCG, Central Asia’s biggest cement producer.

The lobbying campaign offers a window onto the world of sanctions lobbying — a bustling cottage industry in Washington since the 2022 Ukraine invasion caused a spike in U.S. and other Western sanctions against firms and individuals seen as aiding Russia’s war effort.

Typically, political strategy and law firms lobby lawmakers and other officials to push regulators, including the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, to remove someone already on a sanctions list, or prevent their clients from being listed. The lobby firms sometimes conduct publicity campaigns in support of their efforts.

Yet lobbying for sanctions or official condemnations against rivals has become an increasingly popular tool in particular for business actors across Eurasia.

In December, the Financial Times revealed that a newly sanctioned Dutch oil trader alleges a former business partner was responsible for EU sanctions against him, which the partner denied. In 2023, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project showed how a private intelligence firm working for a U.S. healthcare company allegedly fed questions about a rival being an alleged Russian agent to a British MP. In January, The Diplomat reported that an Uzbek businessman had been detained in Tashkent last year after allegedly refusing to push for U.S. sanctions against two high-ranking public officials.

In an interview with ICIJ, Payne, the Linden partner, said that Aripov, the entrepreneur, had hired his firm to “go after United Cement,” including with sanctions pressure. Aripov’s company paid Linden $25,000, according to lobbying filings.

In a series of emails to ICIJ, Aripov said he was “not a side of conflict” with UCG and Shadmanov and denied asking Payne to lobby for sanctions against UCG. He said the assertion could be easily proven false with documents, but declined to provide them.

Aripov said his relationship with Payne soured over a business dispute.

Payne acknowledges having a previous business relationship with Aripov and having ended it, but denies it ended because of a business dispute. He declined to elaborate.

Uzbekistan’s political scene has been roiled in recent months by a string of anonymously sourced media reports of an alleged feud between powerful family members of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Analysts and news reports have suggested a conflict between Mirziyoyev’s eldest daughter and adviser, Saida Mirziyoyeva, and a son-in-law, Otabek Umarov, who until recently was deputy head of the country’s Presidential Security Service.

The name Shadmanov, UCG’s owner, hit headlines this month after he was detained in a raid by security forces at his home in Dubai and extradited to Uzbekistan. Uzbek authorities have declined to say why they sought Shadmanov’s extradition.

“Ulugbek Shadmanov is the victim of a blatant political prosecution by authorities in Uzbekistan,” said his lawyer Marc Agnifilo.

The Shadmanov spokesperson told ICIJ that Aripov had approached Shadmanov about potential business projects in 2023 but the interaction later devolved into a dispute.

According to RFE/RL and The Diplomat, Shadmanov is allegedly an ally of President Mirziyoyev’s son-in-law, Umarov. The spokesperson for Shadmanov said he “does not have a business or personal relationship with Otabek Umarov” in a comment to ICIJ.

Payne also says Shadmanov and Aripov are business rivals.

In Uzbekistan, a 36-million-strong country situated in the heart of Central Asia between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. is sometimes referred to the country’s “sixth neighbour” — a reference to the U.S.’s important economic and security support for Uzbekistan in the 2000s. The relationship later faltered after then-President Islam Karimov orchestrated a domestic crackdown and shut down a U.S. airbase.

Since coming to power in 2016, President Mirziyoyev has sought to end the country’s international isolation, and improve relations with the U.S.

Uzbekistan has spent millions of dollars on high-powered D.C. lobbying and consulting firms to attract U.S. investors.

And U.S. investors have taken an interest in Mirziyoyev’s “Uzbek spring.” Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former CIA chief Mike Pompeo and a former top State Department official, Tom Shannon, for instance, serve as advisers to Gor Investment, an Uzbekistan-focused investment firm based in London and Tashkent.

A brief biography of Aripov on the website of a Latvian-registered company he owns called Euro Luxe Trading, says he began his career in international business in 1993, including roles as an official country consultant for Motorola and the U.S. defense and IT giant Harris Corp. in Uzbekistan. The webpage on Aripov has since become inaccessible after ICIJ made contact with him.

Payne, who also runs energy company Linden Energy, said he met Aripov back in 2011 while Payne served as honorary consul — a sort of quasi diplomat or representative — to Texas on behalf of the Baltic state of Latvia.

Amid the sanctions frenzy following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. began accusing Uzbek companies of breaking sanctions on Russia by supplying key components to the Russian military-industrial complex.

In January 2024, records show, Euro Luxe contracted with Linden Strategies to lobby on “issues relating to fair business practices in Uzbekistan” in the House of Representatives.

Payne told ICIJ that Linden Strategies “did not specifically register” to push for sanctions pressure against UCG on behalf of Aripov. However, he said, pushing for such sanctions against UCG did “fall under our registration parameters,” the disclosed reasons for hiring a lobbyist.

In remarks in the House of Representatives on March 15 last year, Hunt stood and inquired about “a possible and deliberate violation of U.S. imposed sanctions” by UCG.

“As the war in Ukraine carries on and as Russian sanctions are imposed, I worry that our focus on Russian assets and agents in Europe has overlooked assets and agents in former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan,” Hunt said.

He said UCG’s 2022 privatization deal was “opaque” and came at a “significant discount,” adding, “We are seeing monopolization under the guise of privatization, to the benefit of Russia.”

On March 19, according to U.S. Federal Election Commission data, Payne made his $3,300 donation to Hunt’s campaign for re-election. The donation was recorded in Linden Strategies’ lobbying disclosure filing.

Payne said the donation and Hunt’s remarks were unconnected.

“I have contributed the maximum allowed amount to Congressman Hunt since his first campaign in 2021,” Payne said. “I have held several fundraisers for [Hunt], and we have attended social events with one another and our wives.”

Hunt did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment

Payne said the lobbying parameters of his contract with Euro Luxe also included Linden Strategies writing to Uzbek president Mirziyoyev in April to inform him that the Office of Foreign Assets Control had been directed to investigate UCG, “’which undoubtedly harms the image of Uzbekistan”.

That letter to President Mirziyoyev referenced “discussions” in U.S. Congress on UCG as the source of the directive to investigate UCG for possible sanctions violations.

The claim that UCG was collaborating with Russia to circumvent U.S. sanctions is “logistically implausible”, said the Shadmanov spokesperson. “Cement production and distribution economics make such allegations technically impossible,” they said.

Payne told ICIJ he had ended the $25,000 contract with Aripov. Linden Strategies’s Euro Luxe contract ended on April 1, 2024, according to lobbying filings.

Payne said he also “rescinded” Linden Strategies’s letter to President Mirziyoyev warning about UCG in August 2024, citing “internal disagreements” and other factors in comments to ICIJ.

Aripov didn’t respond to an emailed question from ICIJ about whether he had instructed Payne to lobby for sanctions against Shadmanov’s firm.

The U.S. Treasury did not respond to requests for comment about whether it had conducted any inquiries into UCG.