Russia telecoms giant MTS to pay $850 mn in US corruption case

Moscow: Russia’s leading telecoms firm said Thursday it had agreed to pay $850 million to settle a US corruption case over huge bribes paid to the family of Uzbekistan’s former president.

The case shed light on massive corruption in Uzbekistan under former president Islam Karimov, who ruled the ex-Soviet nation from 1989 until his death in 2016.

MTS, based in Moscow and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said the settlement had been agreed with the US Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).