Islamic Finance Consultative Board severed cooperation with IMAN Invest: the company rejects the accusations

The council announced the severance of cooperation

The Islamic Finance Consultative Board (IFCB) announced the immediate and complete termination of any cooperation with the investment company IMAN Invest, which operates in Uzbekistan's Islamic finance market. The statement was delivered in a video address by members of the board — international Islamic finance auditor Mahmud Usmon and lawyer Husain Rajabov. The board stressed that it had not previously issued a final conclusion on the company's activities, having only conducted a Sharia audit. According to Gazeta, the IFCB is a private consulting firm, not a state regulator and not affiliated with the Islamic Finance Council under the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.

What the audit revealed

According to the IFCB, in July 2026 the board received documents indicating numerous questionable transactions, after which a review commission of financiers, lawyers and Sharia auditors was created. The audit lasted three and a half months, and the final results of the financial analysis were received on October 15. According to the board, the company's management disposed of investors' funds in violation of Islamic finance principles, internal documents and the legislation of Uzbekistan: profits were distributed even when investors' capital was partially or fully lost, and the money went to personal purposes — luxury cars, apartments, administrative expenses, salaries, events and marketing. As a result, the IFCB claims, a shortfall of several million dollars emerged, and the company will not be able to return investors' funds upon request. The board does not recommend investing in the company from a Sharia standpoint until the violations are remedied, the damage is compensated, and the agreements with investors are updated, and demanded that the use of its name and the names of its board members in promoting IMAN Invest products cease.

The company's response and accusations against the auditor

IMAN urged investors not to panic and announced that it had agreed on an independent Sharia audit with the firm Usmani's, associated with the sons of Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani; according to the company, the audit has already begun, and the results will be published regardless of the auditors' conclusions. A new internal Islamic finance board of recognized scholars is also being formed, and until it begins work, the launch of new products and changes to existing ones are suspended. IMAN Holding founder Rustam Rakhmatov, in a video address, categorically rejected Mahmud Usmon's accusations. According to him, over two and a half years of cooperation, Usmon received more than 100 thousand dollars in fees, and the disagreements began after an attempt to reduce these payments and a demand for a large equity stake in IMAN Holding, which the company refused. Rakhmatov recalled that an audit two years ago had found the company's activities compliant with Sharia, promised to openly publish the results of the new international audit in about a month, and stated that all obligations to investors remain in force and the dispute will be resolved through legal channels.

Published documents

On October 26, Mahmud Usmon called Rakhmatov's accusations slander and an attempt to divert attention from questions about the spending of funds, after which he published the first documents. According to the review commission's decision of July 3, 2026, on April 10, 2026, 128 thousand dollars of investors' funds were transferred from the account of the limited partnership IMAN Halal Investments to the account of LLC Founders Trust 1, which, according to the document, were used to purchase a Mercedes-Benz S500 for Rustam Rakhmatov; the head of Founders Trust 1 was simultaneously an employee of IMAN, which the commission regarded as a conflict of interest. A separate episode concerns a BYD Champion car bought by Rakhmatov in installments: according to the commission, the overdue debt amounted to 306.5 million soums, and the total remaining obligations were 366.9 million soums. The authenticity of Rakhmatov's signature on the document has not been independently verified; there is no information about the sale of the cars or the repayment of the obligations. Another document — an annex to the decision of the sole participant of IMAN Halal Investments LLC dated July 2, 2026 — indicates the management company's debt to the partnership of 2.97 million dollars as of May 31, 2026, labor costs averaging 300 thousand dollars per month and marketing expenses of up to 124 thousand dollars per month, as well as a problematic BNPL installment portfolio of approximately 9.5 million dollars (17–18% of the segment). Gazeta notes that these two figures are different quantities and cannot automatically be added to the reported shortfall.

The significance of the situation

The conflict affects IMAN Invest depositors, which operates on a mudaraba model, where profits are distributed between the investor and the manager: according to the IFCB, it was this model that was violated. In practical terms, investors now have to navigate two opposing signals — the council's warning and the company's assurances — while the resolution of the dispute has been declared to take place in the legal field, and the results of the independent audit by Usmani's are expected, according to Rakhmatov, in about a month. So far, neither the council's conclusions nor the company's counterarguments have been confirmed by an independent party, and the authenticity of the published signatures, as Gazeta notes, has not been verified.