Interpol has issued a Red Notice for Uzbek financier Kakhramonjon Olimov, who in the summer of 2025 claimed he had been kidnapped in Paris. A subsequent investigation by The Insider and L’Express found evidence suggesting the kidnapping of Olimov was staged. Then, last week, The Insider was the first to report that Olimov had been charged in a separate kidnapping case, with a source alleging that Olimov himself planned for the abduction of a business rival. Uzbekistan has ordered Olimov’s arrest, and Interpol has responded by placing the businessman on its international wanted list.
Olimov is the owner of Anorbank. According to the latest disclosed figures, he directly owns 52.36% of the bank, while another 47.06% is held by Netherlands-registered Bekamin B.V., which is also linked to Olimov.
After The Insider’s previous report, Anorbank said that the reports concerning Olimov were related to “personal matters” and had no connection to the bank’s capital, management, or operations. Uzbekistan’s central bank said at the time that Anorbank continued to operate normally and complied with required financial standards.
According to the court order authorizing his arrest in absentia, Uzbek authorities have charged Olimov under clauses “b” and “c” of Part 2 of Article 137 of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code — kidnapping for financial gain or other motives, committed by a group acting in prior conspiracy. The charge carries a sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
In the summer of 2025, Olimov claimed he had been kidnapped in central Paris, taken to a villa near Nice, tortured, and ordered to pay $10 million. According to his account, he was released after paying $200,000 and signing an IOU for $5 million. However, a joint investigation by The Insider and L’Express found multiple inconsistencies in Olimov’s story: after his alleged release, the financier continued to exchange friendly messages with a man he had identified as one of the kidnappers, and his ticket back to Paris was paid for by that man’s driver.
According to a source who spoke to The Insider, investigators believe Olimov may have staged his own kidnapping in order to portray his former employer and adversary in a financial dispute, Batyr Rakhimov, as the organizer of the crime. On top of that, investigators allege that Olimov later used Uzbek security officials to arrange Rakhimov’s kidnapping in an effort to force him to drop financial claims against him. Rakhimov had previously demanded more than $200 million in compensation from Olimov for assets that he said came under his former subordinate’s control on terms that were highly unfavorable to him.
An Interpol Red Notice is a request to law enforcement authorities in member countries to locate a wanted person and provisionally detain them pending extradition or another legal procedure. It is not an international arrest warrant, as each country decides whether to detain the person based on its own laws.
