An obscure company linked to the Uzbek president's family secured more than $100 million in secretive state contracts, including a sweetheart deal to deliver tens of millions of dollars in overpriced natural gas to the country's largest cement producer, an RFE/RL investigation has found.

The lucrative government contracts secured by the shadowy firm, Ultimo Group Limited, highlights how political insiders -- including relatives of President Shavkat Mirziyoev -- and their associates profit from what critics call endemic cronyism at the highest levels of the Uzbek government.

Mirziyoev, who last year ordered authorities to root out corruption in the energy sector amid gas shortages that sparked popular outrage, has repeatedly pledged to boost transparency and tackle graft in the gas-rich nation, Central Asia's most populous.

"No one has the right to work like they did in the past. As you know, openness and transparency are now being ensured in all spheres of society. Nontransparency, corruption, and nepotism will not help [our] work," Mirziyoev said in 2019 in reference to the reign of his authoritarian predecessor, Islam Karimov, who died in 2016.

But an investigation by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service has found that associates of Mirziyoev's son-in-law are linked to Ultimo Group, a virtually unknown company that was awarded a government contract to sell at least $36 million in overpriced natural gas to Uzbek cement giant Qizilqumsement, which was owned by the state at the time, despite having no business record.

Documents obtained by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service also show that Ultimo Group received more than $66 million in wire transfers from the state gas-transit monopoly, Uztransgaz, under a commission agreement, and that the company imported nearly 1 billion cubic meters of gas from neighboring Turkmenistan.

The investigation found that Ultimo Group is connected to a byzantine cross-border network of companies -- stretching from New York to Dubai to Hong Kong -- that deal in luxury goods and are also operated by associates of Mirziyoev's son-in-law, Otabek Umarov, an Uzbek sports executive and Mirziyoev's deputy security chief.

A central figure in this network is Azizjon Kamilov, a confidant of Umarov who serves as head of the Uzbek Judo Federation and deputy head of the country's Olympic committee.

Earlier investigations by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service have shown how those in Umarov's orbit, including his brother, have amassed significant wealth under the patronage of Mirziyoev's government, often using complex corporate structures that obscure beneficial ownership.

Umarov is also widely seen as a behind-the-scenes power broker among political and economic elites in the nation of nearly 37 million.

"Uzbekistan remains an authoritarian state characterized by high levels of corruption, nepotism, and abuse of power," the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International wrote in its most recent assessment of Uzbekistan, while noting the country has notched "some progress in political and economic reforms" under Mirziyoev.

Over the past several years, Umarov has become a celebrity figure in Uzbekistan, though on paper he is merely a midlevel public servant. He hobnobs with foreign VIPs and royals while aggressively cultivating his image as the main patron of Uzbekistan's athletes.

A key element of Umarov's self-promotion has been his personal brand, called 7Saber, which adorns the country's Olympic uniforms. The brand was unveiled in 2021 and directly links Umarov to the network of companies and associates connected to Ultimo Group, which appeared out of nowhere three years ago as a natural-gas middleman in Uzbekistan.

Despite its sudden and lucrative emergence, Ultimo Group remains a corporate phantom. It has no functioning website or public profile, and it is currently co-owned on paper by a pensioner with no evident business experience.

RFE/RL sought comment from Umarov and multiple Uzbek government bodies and companies on how the gas middleman was able to secure tens of millions of dollars in state contracts almost immediately after it was established. None responded in time for publication.

A written request for comment to Mirziyoev's office also went unanswered.

One of Ultimo Group's 50 percent shareholders, Tuhfat Anvarkhujaev, denied he had any relationship to Umarov while describing his relationship with Kamilov as "friendly." He said Umarov and Kamilov have "nothing to do" with Ultimo Group.

The Secret Gas Deal

Ultimo Group Limited was incorporated in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in March 2021 with a founding capital of $9,500 and a residential apartment as its official address.

The company's founding shareholders were Dilyor Kayumov, who had been a member of a group of expatriate Uzbek supporters of the president, and Anvarkhujaev, whose father previously served in Uzbekistan's state security service and whose uncle currently serves as the Uzbek ambassador to Turkey.

Neither of the men had ever been a listed shareholder in other companies, Uzbek corporate records show, though Kayumov had worked in the oil-and-gas sector with the Canadian company RLG International, which at the time of Ultimo Group's founding was serving as a consultant to the Uzbek state oil-and-gas monopoly Uzbekneftegaz on production efficiency.

Business rolled in fast for the newcomers.

Qizilqumsement, which was 86 percent owned by the government at the time, had projected it would need 375 million cubic meters of natural gas annually for 2021 and 2022. As a state-owned company it was required by law to conduct a competitive tender to find a supplier.

Details of the bidding process remain unclear. But on April 13, 2021, Qizilqumsement signed the procurement contract with Ultimo Group, which just a week earlier had registered its official website.

Under the contract and subsequent amendments, Ultimo would supply 379 million cubic meters of gas to Qizilqumsement -- a volume slightly exceeding the cement company's projected annual needs -- for a total of at least $36.6 million, according to an RFE/RL analysis of the agreements.

The cement factory, which has since been privatized, had been purchasing its gas directly from the state at a discounted rate for "strategic" companies. But records reviewed by RFE/RL suggest it may have paid a 50 percent premium above that rate by using Ultimo Group as a middleman.

Ultimo Group is not a gas producer, nor does it control the pipelines through which Qizilqumsement's gas was to be delivered. Those pipelines are controlled by the state gas-transit monopoly Uztransgaz, which at the time was tasked under a Mirziyoev decree with purchasing and transporting both domestic and foreign natural gas as well as selling it to domestic consumers, like Qizilqumsement, already connected to its network.

Qizilqumsement is a founding member of an association of construction-material producers called Ozsanoatqurilishmateriallari that Mirziyoev created by decree in 2019 and whose headquarters is located next to Ultimo Group's official address.

According to a London Stock Exchange prospectus for UzbekNefteGaz in November 2021 -- the same year as Ultimo Group's contract with Qizilqumsement -- Uztransgaz was selling natural gas to Ozsanoatqurilishmateriallari and other "strategic partners in the industrial sector" at a price of $63 per 1,000 cubic meters.

At that price, Qizilqumsement in 2021 would have saved around $10 million if it had bought its gas from Uztransgaz rather than Ultimo Group, which charged between $95 and $145 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Why Qizilqumsement would overpay to acquire gas from a middleman remains unclear, especially considering a 2019 government decree making Uztransgaz the sole direct supplier of natural gas to key consumers. Written inquiries to Qizilqumsement and Uztransgaz went unanswered as of publication.

Anvarkujaev said information about Ultimo Group's profits constituted a "commercial secret."

A 2021 government decree cited as the basis for the contract between Qizilqumsement and Ultimo Group might have shed more light on the deal. But in a copy of the contract that RFE/RL obtained from an archived page on an Uzbek government tenders site, the name of that decree is redacted.

Exactly how much Ultimo Group earned in profits from its contract with Qizilqumsement remains unclear. But bank records and customs data reviewed by RFE/RL reveal Ultimo Group was involved in natural gas transactions totaling nearly $200 million.

From April 2021 to March 2022, Ultimo Group imported more than 955 million cubic meters from Turkmengas, the state gas company in neighboring Turkmenistan, customs records show. The total listed value of this gas was $88.5 million. Turkmengas did not respond to a request for comment on these exports to Ultimo Group.

Ultimo Group was importing this Turkmen gas at a price ranging from $69 to $106 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2021 and $110 to $116 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2022, while it sold gas to Qizilqumsement at a price ranging from $95 to $145 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the procurement contract.

Uztransgaz, whose pipelines carry imported Turkmen gas into Uzbekistan, was also paying Ultimo Group tens of millions of dollars during this same period.

Bank records obtained by RFE/RL show that Uztransgaz made at least eight payments totaling $66.6 million to Ultimo Group from January to September 2022. Each of these transfers listed the same purpose: indicating "payment for natural gas" according to a commission agreement with the number "34/26-2021."

RFE/RL was unable to establish the terms of this commission agreement, and Uztransgaz did not respond to a request for comment about the wire transfers. Anvarkhujaev claimed Uztransgaz provided middleman services for Ultimo Group but did not provide further details.

RFE/RL was also unable to find any record of Ultimo Group's commercial activities beyond the gas contract with Qizilqumsement, the import of nearly 1 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas, and the $66 million in wire transfers from Uztransgaz.

Arab Royalty And High Fliers

Since becoming head of the Uzbek Judo Federation in 2018, Azizjon Kamilov has been a frequent and visible associate of Umarov, who married Mirziyoev's daughter, Shahnoza, in 2007.

Kamilov and Umarov have worked closely together to promote martial arts in Uzbekistan and the two frequently travel and are photographed together.

It is this relationship that reveals the high-level political connections that the secretive gas middleman Ultimo Group maintained as it secured more than $100 million in state contracts shortly after its founding in March 2021.

A since-deleted Instagram photo obtained by RFE/RL shows Kamilov together with Ultimo Group's 50 percent shareholder, Tuhfat Anvarkhujaev, with the two men flashing peace gestures next to a birthday cake icon and the caption "happy birthday."

But that is not Kamilov's only connection to Ultimo Group.

An e-mail address listed in Ultimo Group corporate records belongs to Behruz Abdushukurov, a hunting guide who has served as a manager with the Uzbek company Falcon Hunting Solutions, which Kamilov founded in 2018 and wholly owns.

One of Abdushukurov's business associates registered the Ultimo Group website, while Ultimo Group's manager, Ravshan Mutalov, also managed two companies in which Abdushukurov has been a shareholder.

In a telephone call with RFE/RL, Mutalov said he had been involved in gas deals with Turkmenistan but had not worked in this sector for the past two years. He declined to give further details and did not respond to a detailed written inquiry.

Reached by telephone, Abdushukurov said he did not know why his e-mail address was listed in corporate records for Ultimo Group and denied involvement with the company. He also denied knowing Mutalov despite their links to the same companies, saying he does not remember all of the directors of his companies. Abdushukurov said he would respond to a detailed list of questions about Ultimo Group but did not do so in time for publication.

Falcon Hunting Solutions describes itself as an ecotourism company focusing on trophy hunting as well as "environmental protection" and "biodiversity preservation." An Asian Development Bank report, meanwhile, describes it as a company that manages hunting of the rare houbara bustard bird "for Arab royal families."

Among the Arab royals who have been clients of such excursions is Hamdan bin Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktum, whose 2019 wedding was attended by Umarov and Kamilov.

The crown prince arrived in Uzbekistan in October 2019 for one of several falcon-hunting excursions in the Central Asian nation. When his father, Dubai ruler Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktum, joined him in Uzbekistan later in October, Umarov and Kamilov were among those to greet him at the airport.

In the days following his arrival, Dubai's crown prince went falcon hunting on a 300-hectare plot of land in southwestern Uzbekistan where Falcon Hunting Solutions has cooperated with the Dubai royal family to boost the numbers of the houbara bustard.

Falcon Hunting Solutions is also involved in the work of the Kamilov-led Uzbek Judo Federation, with which it has built judo schools, including at least one that prominently featured Umarov's personal 7Saber logo at the ceremonial opening.

The headquarters of Falcon Hunting Solutions is listed as a Tashkent office building that houses other companies with documented ties to Kamilov, Umarov, and their business associates, including several firms that lead to the Ultimo Group network in the United Arab Emirates.

A man who answered the phone at the Uzbek Judo Federation said Kamilov rarely comes into the office and was unavailable to speak. Kamilov did not respond to detailed questions about Ultimo Group sent to his personal e-mail.

The Dubai Doppelgangers

In July 2021, four months after Ultimo Group was established in Uzbekistan, a company with the same name, Ultimo Group FZE, was registered in the Free Economic Zone of Sharjah in the U.A.E.

Other than their stated business purposes, which include trading in petroleum products, there was little to suggest the new company was connected to its namesake in Uzbekistan that three months earlier had landed the state gas contract with Qizilqumsement.

But open-source data and corporate records reviewed by RFE/RL reveal that associates of Umarov were also involved in the newly established U.A.E. company and that this company was part of a broader cross-border network of companies involved in luxury goods and services, including at least one of Umarov's well-known passions: expensive cars.

The listed manager and license holder of Ultimo Group FZE is British citizen Ross Connon, according to a U.A.E. business-license record obtained by C4ADS -- a Washington-based, nonprofit data-analysis and global-research organization -- and shared with RFE/RL.

Connon describes himself as a "private client adviser" in companies working with wealthy clients on issues related to foreign citizenship, residence, and real estate.

He also has a direct business relationship with Umarov.

At a glitzy June 2021 event in Tashkent for the unveiling of a new clothing line under Umarov's 7Saber brand, Connon was introduced as the CEO of Berkeley Square Project Management, a Dubai company that Umarov says acquired rights to the brand.

On Instagram, Umarov congratulated Connon and his local business partner, Oraz Abdurazakov, wishing them luck and saying, "We will all follow your success and root for the new team."

The Uzbek Olympic Committee, whose deputy head is Umarov's close associate Azizjon Kamilov, hailed the event as the arrival of a "new national brand," and the following month it was announced that 7Saber would produce the apparel for the Uzbek Olympic team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Connon lists his place of work as Berkeley Square Investments, a name echoing that of the Dubai company that acquired the rights to 7Saber. Reporters could find no company under that name in either London or Dubai.

RFE/RL's Uzbek Service visited the addresses in both cities listed on the Berkeley Square Investments website, which was registered in August 2020, but could find no evidence of Connon or his company there.

Connon said in a written correspondence that he would forward RFE/RL's questions about Ultimo Group "to the correct person" but did not respond to a list of questions about his own role in the company.

Another individual affiliated with Ultimo Group FZE also links the company to both Umarov and the broader Ultimo Group network, whose companies share overlapping names, corporate officers, shareholders, and other associates.

A page on the website of the economic zone where Ultimo Group FZE was incorporated lists two company e-mail addresses. One belongs to Connon while the other belongs to self-described "luxury goods and jewelry professional" Doniyor Kadirov.

In May 2023, the Uzbek Judo Federation released photos of senior Uzbek sports officials, including Umarov and Kamilov, meeting with their judokas in Doha. Standing next to Umarov with an event badge around his neck was Kadirov, the lone individual in the photos without a formal role in the Uzbek sports establishment.

Kadirov, who posted an Instagram video of himself together with Kamilov and Russian mixed-martial-arts star Khabib Nurmagomedov, is directly or indirectly connected to at least four companies within the Ultimo Group network incorporated in Uzbekistan, the U.A.E., Hong Kong, and the United States.

Among these are companies operating under the names Rushmore, Boutique Seven, and World Trade Solutions, which are involved in luxury watches and concierge services, and another that positions itself as a luxury-vehicle dealer.

A woman who answered the phone at the U.A.E. office where several of the Ultimo Group network's companies are located described Kadirov as her boss and suggested sending questions by e-mail. Inquiries sent to Kadirov's personal e-mail address and the official e-mail addresses of several of these companies went unanswered.

In Tashkent, several companies in the Ultimo Group network use the same corporate address, a business complex on Oloy Market Street near the center of the Uzbek capital. These include Kamilov's Falcon Hunting Solutions and another company in which he was involved.

The Vanishing

Activity by Ultimo Group Limited on the Uzbek natural-gas market ground to a halt seemingly as quickly as it began three years ago.

Uzbek state procurement databases and corporate-data aggregators do not indicate that Ultimo Group won -- or even bid for -- a single government tender after it secured the 2021 contract to supply at least $36 million of natural gas to Qizilqumsement.

The Uzbek company's imports of Turkmen gas ended in March 2022, customs records show, and the last of the $66 million in known payments it received from Uztransgaz -- a wire transfer of $20 million -- came in September of that year.

At some point after July 2022, Ultimo Group founding shareholder Dilyor Kayumov, who did not respond to a written inquiry sent to his Instagram account, transferred his 50 percent stake in the company to his 67-year-old mother, Matlyuba Kayumova.

Reached by telephone, Kayumova's husband told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that she could not comment on her ownership of Ultimo Group and that all questions should be addressed to the company itself.

The other founding shareholder, Tuhfat Anvarkhujaev, who was photographed together with Kamilov, has kept his 50 percent stake in Ultimo Group.

After initially being registered at the residential address where Kayumov and his mother were registered, Ultimo Group eventually moved its official address to the Ichan Qala Hotel in central Tashkent. The hotel has multiple affiliations with the Uzbek company K7 Hotel Management, which is 100 percent owned by Otabek Umarov's brother, Oybek Umarov.

Meanwhile, Kayumov now works as a senior manager at the Tashkent City Mall, a massive Mirziyoev-backed development built by a smuggling and money-laundering network headed by Central Asian tycoon Khabibula Abdukadyr, who has previously partnered with the Uzbek president's relatives.

Asked why the stake was transferred to Kayumov's mother, Anvarkhujaev said in an e-mail that he thought it was "related to her family situation" but did not elaborate. He said Matlyuba Kaymova plays no role in the company's management.

In March, Kayumov gave Mirziyoev a tour of the mall, footage of which was released both by Mirziyoev's administration and the shopping center. In the video released by Tashkent City Mall, the first shop Kayumov is seen taking Mirziyoev to is a sportswear store for Umarov's 7Saber brand.

In e-mailed comments, Anvarkhujaev claimed that Ultimo Group is currently "engaged in investment projects in the oil-and-gas sector" but is no longer importing gas.

The company's website, meanwhile, remains under construction -- three years after the firm was founded.

RFE/RL's Baktygul Chynybaeva and Carl Schreck contributed to this report.