Gulnara Karimova Net Worth

What is Gulnara Karimova's Net Worth?

Gulnara Karimova is an Uzbek former diplomat, businesswoman, and singer who has a net worth of $700 million. The elder daughter of former Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov, Gulnara Karimova held various government roles and had business interests around the globe. She quickly gained a reputation in the business world as a corrupt robber baron, and in 2017 she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and money laundering.

Early Life and Education

Gulnara Karimova was born on July 8, 1972 in Fergana, Soviet Uzbekistan to Tatyana and Islam. Her father went on to become the president of Uzbekistan in 1991. Karimova has a younger sister named Lola. As a youth, Gulnara Karimova attended the Youth Mathematic Academy in Tashkent, graduating in 1988. She went on to attend Tashkent State University, from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in international economics. Meanwhile, in 1992, Karimova did a course on jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In the mid-'90s, she attended graduate school at the Uzbekistan Academy of Science.

Karimova returned to graduate school in 1998 when she enrolled at both the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She obtained a master's degree in regional studies from Harvard and a PhD in political science from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy. In 2006, Karimova received another bachelor's degree, this one in telecommunications from Tashkent University of Informational Technologies.

Diplomacy

Under her father's presidency, Karimova worked in Uzbekistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996. She later served as counselor at Uzbekistan's Mission to the United Nations. From 2003 to 2005, Karimova worked as a counselor at the Uzbek embassy in Moscow, and from 2005 to 2008 she was adviser to the minister of foreign affairs. In early 2008, Karimova became deputy foreign minister for international cooperation in cultural and humanitarian affairs. Later in the year, she was appointed as a permanent representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations. Karimova became Uzbek ambassador to Spain in early 2010.

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Business Dealings

Karimova was highly influential in Uzbekistan due to her prolific lucrative business dealings and powerful family connections. However, she quickly became notorious for her criminal conduct, including rampant money laundering and various forms of fraud, such as using UK companies to buy international real estate with funds procured through bribery. Prosecutors accused Karimova of belonging to a criminal ring that controlled assets of more than $1 billion in 12 countries. She was consequently placed under house arrest in Tashkent in 2014. A couple of years later, Karimova was questioned by Swiss prosecutors in a money-laundering investigation, and after that she was banned by the United States Department of the Treasury from doing any business with US entities. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice seized $850 million that had been funneled through Karimova's corrupt deals.

Music Career

Karimova had a career as a singer under the stage name Googoosha. She released her first music video, for a song called "Unutma Meni," in 2006. Karimova later recorded duets with Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and French actor Gérard Depardieu. In 2012, she released her first single, "Round Run," followed by her self-titled debut album.

Criminal Conviction

In 2017, Karimova was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Uzbekistan for money laundering and fraud. However, the next year, her sentence was commuted to five years of house arrest. In 2019, Karimova was jailed for allegedly violating her house arrest. A year later, she received a 13-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of money laundering, extortion, and other criminal activity.

Personal Life

In 1991, Karimova married American businessman Mansur Maqsudi. Together, they had a son named Islam Jr. and a daughter named Iman. When their marriage began to fall apart in 2001, Karimova took the children and returned to Uzbekistan. She and Maqsudi subsequently got divorced, but when she refused to obey a US court ruling granting custody of their children to Maqsudi, an international arrest warrant was filed in her name. Maqsudi also faced arrest in Uzbekistan, and had his business assets stripped. In 2008, Karimova won full custody of her children.

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