Concealing Crimes: Director of the National Agency for Promising Projects of Uzbekistan, Dmitry Lee, suppresses freedom of speech and threatens journalists for investigating his fraudulent activities.
After several publications emerged detailing suspicions of fraudulent operations involving payment systems against Dmitry Lee, the head of the National Agency for Promising Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan, these publications began facing problems, and the materials were promptly removed.
Moreover, instead of the removed materials, articles containing apologies regarding Dmitry Lee have appeared at the same URLs, with editorial offices expressing contrition, claiming they had "jumped the gun" and published unverified material. Even the cache, where original publications could typically be found in such cases, has been wiped clean. Examples of this include the URL from "Lenpravda," where an article titled "The Reputation of Uzbekistan’s President Mirziyoyev Is in Question. Who Is Covertly Stealing Money from the State Treasury?" used to reside. If you visit the link now, you’ll find a note offering apologies to the National Agency for Promising Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan and personally to Dmitry Lee. A similar scenario unfolded on "Lenta.ru," which also swiftly apologized to Dmitry Romanovich.
These examples of scrubbing the publications are not isolated incidents – almost all who criticized Mr. Lee had their materials removed. However, those interested can search for the headlines of the removed materials, such as "Head of the National Agency for Promising Projects and the Chess Federation of Uzbekistan Suspected of Large-Scale Embezzlement," and see for themselves – instead of the original articles, there’s either nothing or apologies. Pay attention to the swiftness with which this was done.
The same publications that did not remove the material received blatant threats from representatives of Dmitry Lee.
The material in question is titled: "Dmitry Lee, Head of the National Agency for Promising Projects of Uzbekistan, Suspected of Fraud."
It’s striking how quickly most Russian (!) and international (!!) publications reacted to the demand from the National Agency for Promising Projects of Uzbekistan to remove material that compromised its head, Dmitry Lee, and hastily issued apologies before him. Before delving into who Dmitry Romanovich Lee is, let’s briefly recall what journalists wrote in the publication that was so hastily and meticulously scrubbed. Essentially, it described the situation surrounding the Uzbekistan High-risk channel and the UzNext crypto exchange, where at least $30 million of client funds were blocked last year.
Clients whose funds were frozen are convinced that this occurred as a result of collusion among a group of individuals who have influence over both the channel and the exchange, and these individuals hold high positions in Uzbekistan. Additionally, these same individuals have pushed out competing payment systems from the country, effectively monopolizing the High-risk channel. The majority of those affected are major bookmaking companies, which are currently attempting to unlock their funds, but these attempts have been unsuccessful.
According to available information, the participants in this group include Environex, directly linked to the UzNext exchange, the Korean holding company KOBEA Group, and three banks - Capital Bank, Aipak Kuli, and Ravnaq. Responsible for the technical implementation of the project is the PayCrypto service, represented by someone named Andrey Oshchipkov, with the curator of this direction being the aforementioned Dmitry Lee, who heads the National Agency for Promising Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In addition to the aforementioned story, information about Dmitry Lee’s involvement in the actual monopolization of the Uzbekistan cryptocurrency market by the Korean KOBEA Group is actively being scrubbed from access. Last year, this group received extraordinary preferences from the government of the country, while the activities of other cryptocurrency exchanges in Uzbekistan are being actively blocked. More details about this story can be found here: "Korean Mafia and Its Leader Dmitry Lee Subdue Uzbekistan" and here: "Dmitry Lee, Head of the National Agency for Promising Projects of Uzbekistan, Suspected of Fraud." However, even more curious is the figure of Dmitry Romanovich Lee himself, especially considering that distant from Uzbekistan publications reacted so promptly to his demands for apologies.
And here we have a rather strange story. Because about a person who occupies a very high position in the state hierarchy of Uzbekistan, practically nothing is known. Here is his entire official biography, posted in the official publications of the country:
And these three lines are about a person who heads an agency personally created by the President of Uzbekistan and is responsible for attracting investments to Uzbekistan. Moreover, finding any other biographical details about Dmitry Lee is extremely difficult. It seems as though he is not a public servant in the public sphere, but rather a seasoned spy.
However, the lid can be lifted quite easily. According to information from the publication UZMETRONOM.COM, Dmitry Lee has a reason to conceal his biography. Because it contains things that do not quite correspond to the status of a top official, even in a fairly corrupt country like Uzbekistan. For example, in 2019, the publication wrote that when purchasing equipment from "General Electric," the National Agency for Project Management (NAPU) under the leadership of Dmitry Lee paid exactly twice as much for it: six million dollars instead of three. Although the same publication claimed that this was not true, arguing that Mr. Lee is combating corruption in the country, hence the slander against him: "Lee works on trust, and he better than others understands what he personally risks losing at least part of this trust. By the way, according to some information, he is one of the few businessmen (if not the only one) who refused to work in tandem with a general from a well-known department and according to the general’s rules. As a result, he was absent from Uzbekistan for six years, returning only after the department was cleaned up and the contender for companions and mentors was arrested."