IMAN Holding refutes claim of a $20 million 'financial hole' and announces reforms

What happened

On October 25, Mahmud Usmon, who was presented as a former partner and chairman of the Islamic finance council of IMAN Holding, made statements about violations identified during an internal audit of the company. According to him, the audit found violations in the use of investors' funds, and with a portfolio of about $70 million, documents recorded a shortfall of approximately $20 million. This was reported by the outlet UzNews.uz.

The company's response: three indicators instead of one sum

On October 28, IMAN Holding officially responded, disagreeing with this interpretation: according to the company, the $20 million figure combines three different financial indicators that cannot be considered direct losses to investors. As IMAN explained, $3.5 million is risk from problem loans not covered by reserves (the share of such loans as of October 1 was 6.5%, and with reserves of 31.91 billion soums it drops to 3.5%). Another $2.97 million is the management company's debt to the investment fund, arising from financing its current expenses out of the fund's funds; the company asserts that the operations complied with the offers in effect, including the offer of January 28, 2025, approved by the IFCB, and that the practice was discontinued in July with repayment over six months starting from November. The third indicator is the 140.75 billion soum difference between the installment sales portfolio (1.105 trillion soums) and the investors' portfolio (965.02 billion soums) as of October 1, 2026, which, according to the company, refutes the existence of a 'financial hole'. These explanations were reported by the outlets Daryo.uz and UzNews.uz.

Cars and acknowledged violations

A separate part of the claims concerned two cars purchased with funds connected to the fund. In April 2026, a Mercedes-Benz S500 was bought for the company's founder Rustam Rakhmatov for about $128,000 — it was planned to be leased to him at a market rate for the benefit of the fund. After the audit, the transaction was found not to comply with the principles of Islamic finance; according to IMAN, the car was sold on August 12, and its cost and lease payments were fully reimbursed. The debt on a BYD Champion, purchased in installments in 2023, was repaid early by Rakhmatov on July 31 — in the amount of more than 366.9 million soums. The company acknowledged the existence of individual violations, noting that most of the findings have been resolved and work on the remaining ones is ongoing.

Announced reforms and what remains unknown

Against the backdrop of the situation, IMAN Holding's leadership announced organizational changes: operational management is to be handed over to new specialists, founder Rustam Rakhmatov will move to the supervisory board, a Sharia Council of three scholars will be created within the structure, and independent auditors will be engaged to increase transparency. At the same time, as both outlets note, there is currently no independent audit report confirming the position of either party — that is, the discrepancy between Usmon's statements and the company's response has not yet been resolved by an external review.