Victims of a Real Estate Scam and Unpunished Fraudsters

The arrest of Dmitry Kan, founder of the Glamur Gold

construction company, on January 24 of this year, was not an act of principle, but a belated attempt by the Uzbek authorities to avoid responsibility for their own inaction. Years of ignoring the problems of defrauded equity holders, effectively left without housing and protection, brought the situation to a critical point, where social tension threatened mass protests and an uncontrollable explosion of public discontent.

Glamur Gold, taking advantage of the complete inaction of the Tashkent city administration and acting under the de facto protection of certain corrupt officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, has systematically entered into contracts since 2019 to build two Eco Dream residential complexes, each with 360 apartments, in the Yunusabad district of the capital, in the TashGRES neighbourhood.

Despite the developer’s loud public promises to deliver the first building in the first quarter of 2023, the project was never commissioned by the deadline, and there were no signs of completion. Meanwhile, the authorised bodies demonstrated complete inaction: no real response was forthcoming to the construction delays, effectively allowing the developer to violate the rights of equity holders and evade liability with impunity.

With this complete impunity, Glamur Gold, having ignored its obligations to investors and failed to complete the first building, openly launched a fundraising campaign to build a second building. In essence, the new project was used as a cover for a Ponzi scheme created with the sole purpose of enriching a select group at the expense of gullible local investors.

Kan’s Pyramid Scheme

Facts uncovered during an analysis of Glamur Gold’s operations indicate that Dmitry Kan, who is also the founder of at least fifteen commercial entities, created a typical construction Pyramid scheme.

From the outset, the focus was not on implementing the announced projects, but on the systematic misappropriation of funds from the investors, to whom the obligations to them were never intended to be fulfilled.

The scheme was both extremely simple and downright cynical: under the guise of constructing two nine-story buildings, investors’ funds were systematically siphoned off to companies controlled by Dmitry Kan, spent on the personal needs of Glamur Gold’s management, and used to bribe corrupt officials of the Uzbek Ministry of Internal Affairs. Investors’ demands for the developer to fulfil their obligations were not simply ignored; they were deliberately suppressed, and any appeals were suppressed with standard excuses and delays. Years of impunity allowed the scheme to operate openly, turning the construction project into a vehicle for mass fraud and financial enrichment.

The average price of an apartment in the Eco Dream residential complex was approximately $30,000. Considering that the total number of apartments in the two nine-story buildings reached 720, the organisers of this construction Ponzi scheme could theoretically have raised over $21 million. The exact amount of funds collected and their subsequent expenditure will remain to be determined by investigators from the Tashkent Main Department of Internal Affairs.

The only question is whether the investigation will decide to identify and publicly announce the names of Dmitry Kan’s high-ranking patrons and return the money to the defrauded investors—only time will tell.

To keep the investors within manageable limits and prevent them from making collective appeals or approaching high-ranking officials, the organisers of the construction pyramid created a Telegram group that included the victims.

Administrators loyal to Dmitry Kan and his accomplices tightly controlled the investors’ behaviour and coordinated their actions, artificially maintaining the illusion of activity, making promises of housing or, at worst, offering a chance to get their money back. In reality, this group was a tool for manipulation, pressure, and suppression of protest sentiment, created to prevent real actions that could lead to the exposure of the entire chain.

The situation was particularly dire for low-income investors, forced to pay mortgages for housing that in fact does not exist. Having paid their rent in full, they find themselves trapped with no escape: debts mount, fines and late payments accrue, life plans are ruined, families are destroyed, people lose their health and faith in justice, and the government’s inaction only reinforces the feeling that citizens’ rights are completely unprotected in this country.

Investors Stand Alone Against the Authorities and Fraudsters

No longer believing Glamur Gold’s excuses and promises and hoping for the rule of law, some victims were forced to take legal action. They even won civil cases. However, the court rulings were not enforced, and the funds were not returned to their rightful owners. This was made possible by a systemic conspiracy: Dmitry Kan’s corrupt connections in law enforcement agencies allowed them to effectively ignore court decisions and continue to misuse other people’s funds with impunity. As a result, the investors found themselves trapped in a state system that not only fails to protect citizens but actually serves as a shield for fraudsters and their patrons, allowing them to continue exploiting the public’s trust with impunity.

Another, more determined group of victims took action. They began systematically “knocking on the doors” of law enforcement agencies, filing statements and complaints, demanding the arrest of Dmitry Kan and the immediate restoration of their violated rights.

In January 2025, approximately 100 victims of Glamur Gold’s activities filed complaints one after another with the Yunusabad District Department for Coordination of Internal Affairs. By March, it was announced that the case had been forwarded to the Tashkent City Department of Internal Affairs, and in April, the Yashnabad District Investigative Department had begun its investigation. By this point, the number of formal complaints had grown to 180, and the pressure on the system had become undeniable.

In May 2025, to defuse social tensions, the Yashnabad District Investigative Department ordered the arrest of Dmitry Kan. However, under pressure from some investors—deliberately manipulated by Glamur Gold employees through a Telegram group they created—the arrest was lifted, and the mastermind of the construction pyramid was released.

This decision was made possible not only by manipulation but also by political patronage from high-ranking officials interested in preserving the fraudulent scheme and protecting its organizers. In fact, the investigative authorities of the Yashnabad district suspended the case against the persons responsible for Glamur Gold, turning the process into a formality.

Despite this, the courageous investors continued to seek justice. In the summer and fall of 2025, they regularly attended meetings with responsible officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Tashkent Main Department of Internal Affairs, demanding real action. As a result, the case of the construction pyramid was transferred to the Almazar District Investigative Department, but it was never opened there. In October 2025, it was returned to the Tashkent Main Department of Internal Affairs, where it remained in limbo, transformed into a tool for delay and “blame shifting.”

Only after a personal meeting on November 2, 2025, with Colonel Ravshan Sultonkhodjaev, Head of the Tashkent City Main Department of Internal Affairs, did the Glamur Gold case finally move forward. He ordered the summoning of Dmitry Kan, who was interviewed about the company’s unfulfilled obligations to clients. During the meeting, the affected investors were given the opportunity to express all their grievances regarding the irresponsible actions of Kan and his employees without unnecessary formalities.

In the presence of the defrauded investors, Colonel Sultonkhodjaev categorically instructed Dilmurod Mirsadikov, head of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs’ Investigative Department, to investigate the Glamur Gold case within two weeks and personally report the results to him.

On December 6, 2025, Komil Abdukhakimov, an investigator with the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs’ Investigative Department, who was directly handling the Glamur Gold case, issued a ruling recognizing Tatyana Lazareva as a civil plaintiff in the criminal case opened against officials of the construction company under Article 168, Part 4, Item “a” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan—fraud on an especially large scale.

However, the victims had reasonable doubts about the objectivity and integrity of the investigation. Regarding the remaining investors, Investigator Abdukhakimov issued rulings recognising them as civil plaintiffs in the same criminal case, but under Item “a” of Part 3 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan—theft by misappropriation or embezzlement on an especially large scale. This legal substitution provoked understandable indignation among the victims: “How is this even possible within the same criminal case?” they asked, seeing this not as an accident, but as a clear attempt to artificially downplay the severity of the charges and evade actual responsibility.

Moreover, the actions of Dmitry Kan and his accomplices reveal a combination of significantly more serious crimes:

• Fraud on an especially large scale, committed by and for an organised group;
• Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement on an especially large scale, committed by and for an organised group;
• Illegal entrepreneurship;
• Abuse of office; forgery of documents.

This legal “fragmentation” of classifications is not an accident, but part of a corruption scheme. It allows for mitigation of liability and dilution of the criminal assessment of the defendants’ actions, allowing them to remain unpunished.

Suspicions of the affected investors that the investigation is effectively under external influence were further confirmed on January 17 of this year. That day, Jamshid Kirgizbaev, a senior inspector at the Tashkent Region State Tax Administration, who was conducting an audit of Glamur Gold as part of the criminal case, bluntly told them: “Dmitry Kan calls ten times a day.”

This statement became clear to the investors that the main defendant in the case was not only not isolated from the process but was continuing to actively interfere in the investigation, exerting pressure on officials and maintaining informal leverage.

Having lost hope that the Tashkent Main Department of Internal Affairs’ Investigative Department could legally and impartially protect their rights, the women were forced to continue their rounds of legal action. They attempted to obtain appointments with the capital’s prosecutor and the Chairperson of the Senate of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and simultaneously began seeking opportunities to publicise their situation through independent media outlets, hoping to draw the attention of the country’s top leadership to the systemic inaction and blatant delays in the investigation.

It’s worth noting that, in the reality of the “new Uzbekistan,” investigator Komil Abdukhakimov of the Tashkent Main Department of Internal Affairs’ Investigative Department does not act independently, but merely follows the instructions of his immediate supervisors, Dilmurod Mirsadikov and Elmurod Mukhamadaliev.

At the same time, investigator Abdukhakimov must be aware that if the investigation moves toward truly identifying the perpetrators and their protectors, his superiors, in order to preserve themselves and the system, will immediately try to make him a scapegoat, declaring him guilty of protecting the Tashkent construction mafia.

Werewolves in Uniform and Government Inaction

For many years, systemic and widespread fraud against equity holders has been ongoing in Uzbekistan. Thousands of citizens who paid in full for their housing were effectively robbed: they received neither the promised apartments nor a refund. This practice is not isolated, but rather organized and persistent, and could not exist without the direct assistance and protection of high-ranking representatives of Uzbekistan’s law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

The activities of the construction company Glamur Gold, which has been unhindered for over six years in misleading citizens and embezzling their funds, are a prime example of the merging of criminal schemes with state structures. This case clearly demonstrates how the corrupt and coercive model in Uzbekistan’s construction industry has become an instrument for the systematic plunder of the population under the guise of law and government.

Despite the arrest of Dmitry Kan, the organiser of the construction pyramid, and the formal criminal prosecution of Glamur Gold’s management, the criminal scheme continues to operate. The company’s employees and affiliates continue to collect funds unhindered, misleading citizens with promises of quickly receiving “environmentally friendly” apartments in the Eco Dream residential complexes. This clearly demonstrates the sham nature of the “investigation” and the state’s complete unwillingness and inability to stop this outright fraud.

At the same time, it is impossible not to note the existence of a well-organised and targeted system of persecution of defrauded equity holders, which has become an integral part of the organised corruption scheme. Using controlled Telegram channels, Glamur Gold representatives effectively organised illegal surveillance of defrauded equity holders, passing their personal information and information about their attempts to defend their rights to corrupt employees of the Tashkent City Police Department’s Investigative Department. Then, through the preventive inspectors, a mechanism was launched to pressure citizens: threats, intimidation, and so-called “preventive conversations,” which became part of the repressive strategy. This practice is not isolated, but widespread, and is used in Uzbekistan as a proven mechanism for evading responsibility, calling into question the very possibility of fair justice within the country.

Instead of protecting citizens’ rights, the state apparatus was used as a tool to suppress their civic activism and protect the interests of criminal organisations associated with Glamur Gold. This demonstrates how law enforcement agencies and local authorities have transformed themselves into protectors of the corruption scheme, actively obstructing the detection of crimes and the suppression of fraud.

As noted above, on November 2, 2025, the head of the Tashkent Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Colonel Sultonkhodjaev, issued a verbal order to his deputy, the head of the Investigative Department, Dilmurod Mirsadikov, to investigate the Glamur Gold case within two weeks and take decisive action in the interests of the defrauded investors. However, the Tashkent Investigative Department openly sabotaged this order, deliberately shielding Dmitry Kan and his accomplices from the investigation, effectively covering up their criminal activities.

A key role in this was played by Elmurod Mukhamadaliev, an employee of the Investigative Department. Acting on instructions from Dmitry Kan’s high-ranking patrons within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, he systematically manipulated the investigation, seeking to soften the charges and reduce the severity of the alleged crimes committed by the organisers of the construction financial pyramid. These actions by Mukhamadaliev not only clearly sabotaged the investigation but also served his own corrupt interests.

This clearly demonstrates how the authorities at the highest levels use their powers to cover up and protect large-scale fraudulent schemes, turning law enforcement agencies into a tool for preserving criminal interests and obstructing justice.

Elmurod Mukhamadaliev’s lifestyle outside of work raises reasonable and entirely justifiable questions, especially given his position in law enforcement. He is widely known for his penchant for luxury, expensive cars, regular foreign travel, close ties to influential businessmen, and predilection for prostitutes. His lifestyle clearly belies his official income and status.

Especially outrageous is Elmurod Mukhamadaliev’s culinary preference for the so called Golden Steak. Given the poverty of millions of Uzbeks, where the average income barely reaches $200, it seems not just cynical but downright offensive. Every time he visits Turkey, Mukhamadaliev and his friends and family go to Nusret Gokce’s restaurant in Istanbul, where the cost of a single “golden” dish, along with a public selfie with the owner, can exceed $1,000 per person.

Thus, Mukhamadaliev not only demonstrates his lust for luxury and power but also openly flaunts his imagined power. Clearly, such behaviour by an employee of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs’ Investigative Department exceeds the bounds of propriety and raises serious questions about the origin of his income, especially considering that his official salary doesn’t even cover the basic expenses for such lavish trips.

This contrast between the luxury of law enforcement officers and the poverty of the people is outrageous and undermines trust in the government, demonstrating a complete disregard for the real problems of society.

This entire situation demands an immediate, full-fledged internal investigation and a legal assessment of the actions of officials covering up the criminal activities of Dmitry Kan and his accomplices.

Today, Uzbekistan has effectively become a gigantic zone of chaotic and largely illegal construction. The country is literally being covered in a forest of low-quality, earthquake-prone high-rise buildings, erected in a complete absence of transparent oversight and public debate. The suppression of independent media and total control over information create ideal conditions for the flourishing of construction financial pyramids, turning citizens’ lives into a tool for the enrichment of a small group of developers and officials.

Against this backdrop, the Uzbek authorities’ claims of “attracting investors” and creating a “favourable investment climate” sound like an outright mockery. In reality, the state is deliberately betraying the interests of its own citizens and sabotaging domestic investment to serve and enrich a small circle of business groups. Tens of thousands of families remain deceived and abandoned for years without any response from the authorities, while talk of law, justice, and human rights protection devolves into brazen hypocrisy.

Country of the Deceived: Revolt Inevitable

The Glamur Gold case is not just another scandal, but a symbol of systemic corruption, government indifference, and the deliberate deception of citizens. Thousands of construction companies across the country operate under a similar fraudulent scheme, existing solely thanks to the patronage of corrupt officials and sham oversight by regulatory agencies, which turns public safety into an empty formality.

The houses they build are veritable death traps. They are being built with gross violations of building codes, without any real oversight, and with absolute irresponsibility. The first major earthquake will transform these neighbourhoods into disaster zones, where hundreds of thousands of Uzbek citizens will be buried alive under rubble. These buildings are not just poorly constructed; they are potential death chambers, threatening the lives of Uzbeks for whom the state is unprepared to provide even minimal protection.

While Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s regime boasts at international forums about the “stability” and “investment attractiveness” of its economy, hundreds of thousands of people inside the country are forced to live in buildings that could collapse at any moment. The Mirziyoyev regime has not only lost credibility; it has endangered the lives of its citizens, making itself complicit in future tragedies, the consequences of which will be incomparably worse than any economic or financial losses.

Continued disregard for the problem of defrauded equity holders and attempts to shift responsibility to private entities are a direct path to widespread social upheaval in Uzbekistan. Government agencies must acknowledge not only their own negligence but also their direct responsibility for creating and maintaining a system in which construction Ponzi schemes—including Glamur Gold—operated with impunity for years, systematically robbing the country’s citizens. Restoring the rights of victims should not be seen as a gesture of goodwill, but as a direct responsibility of the state, which has failed its system of control, oversight, and fundamental duty to protect its citizens.