UPDATE 1-Swiss to return 130 mln Sfr to Uzbekistan after money laundering probe

The Swiss attorney general's office (OAG) on Monday announced it was returning 130 million Swiss francs ($133 million) to Uzbekistan which it seized during an investigation involving a relative of the daughter of the country's former president Islam Karimov.

The OAG's office did not name the relative, who was convicted on Monday in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court of charges related to opening bank accounts with the intention of hiding where money was coming from and who was receiving it, prosecutors said in a statement. The person convicted was a relative of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the now-deceased president, the attorney general's office said.

Switzerland said the sum being returned was seized during its scrutiny of suspected money laundering by Gulnara Karimova's personal assistant, the general manager of the Uzbek subsidiary of a Russian telecommunications company. Criminal proceedings were later extended to Karimova herself, as well as the relative convicted in Switzerland on Wednesday. The relative, who was fined 390,000 francs by the Swiss court, is serving a multiple-year prison term in Uzbekistan, the OAG said.

"As part of the scheme the funds were then laundered abroad, primarily in Switzerland," the OAG said in a statement. "Based on the investigations... 130 million francs in forfeited assets will be returned to Uzbekistan." Switzerland is continuing a related criminal investigation against five individuals in which another 650 million francs have been frozen, the OAG said, adding that further details about progress, in that case, cannot be released.

Gulnara Karimova, a former Uzbek government official who has not been seen in public for several years, was sent to prison in Uzbekistan in March for violating terms of her house arrest. She was indicted by the United States in March as part of an Uzbek corruption scheme in which she is accused of using her official position to solicit $865 million in bribes from three telecommunications companies.