A serving employee of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade is among at least six people detained after security services uncovered a cluster of schemes in which fraudsters charged citizens tens of thousands of dollars for fake promises of passage to the United States, authorities announced on 5 January.
The State Security Service (SSS) said the ministry official, operating in Samarkand, abused his position to win a local resident’s confidence, falsely claiming he had contacts at the US Embassy who could arrange a visa. He demanded $14,000 for the service and was arrested in Samarkand at the moment he collected a $10,000 advance payment.
Routes Through Mexico and Nicaragua
Several of the schemes exploited the well-documented irregular migration corridor through Latin America. A 24-year-old man from Andijan was detained in Jizzakh after demanding $17,000 from a resident of Forish district, promising to move him to the United States via Turkey, Europe, Nicaragua and Mexico using unnamed contacts. He was caught while receiving $10,000 of that sum.
In a separate case, a resident of Akdarya district born in 1999 who is currently living in the United States, and who has a prior criminal conviction, allegedly colluded with a relative enrolled at the Samarkand Institute of Economics and Service. Together they demanded $16,000 from a Samarkand resident for US-bound work placement via Mexico. The student was detained when he collected $10,000. The same Akdarya-based US resident is also alleged to have taken $41,600 from four other citizens on promises of US work placements and spent the money for personal use.
In Syrdarya region, a man born in 1991 currently living in Ohio and an associate based in the city of Yangiyer, also born in 1991, promised to send a resident of Khovos district to the United States through Mexico, charging $8,200 for the service and purported visa documents. The Yangiyer-based suspect was detained by SSS officers and a unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office while receiving $8,100 in cash and 1,240,000 soums.
Criminal Cases Opened
The SSS said criminal cases have been initiated against all of the individuals named in the operation, which spanned Samarkand, Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions. The involvement of a ministry official is particularly notable: the allegation that a civil servant leveraged the perceived authority of his government post to defraud a citizen points to the exploitation of institutional trust, not merely private deception. No trial dates or formal charges have been publicly specified, and all suspects are at the allegation stage of proceedings.
The cases reflect a broader vulnerability among Uzbek citizens seeking legal or irregular pathways to work abroad, a demand that fraudsters across multiple regions appear to be systematically targeting for sums ranging from $8,200 to more than $41,000 per victim.
