Uzbekistan’s NAPM chief Dmitry Lee erases online information about crypto-related embezzlement
Even more notably, the original URLs now redirect to apologetic statements in favor of Dmitry Lee, with editorial teams obsequiously claiming they had “rushed to publish unverified material” and asking for forgiveness. In some cases, even the cached versions of the original articles have been wiped, preventing recovery of the initial reports.
For example, one such article originally appeared under the headline:
“The reputation of Uzbekistan’s President Mirziyoyev under question: Who is quietly stealing money from the state budget?” on Lenpravda.
Now, that link leads to a message stating: “We apologize to the National Agency for Perspective Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan and personally to Dmitry Lee.”
A similar deletion and apology appeared on Lenta.ru, which also quickly published a retraction addressed to Dmitry Lee.
This pattern strongly suggests coordinated censorship or pressure to suppress damaging information about high-ranking officials — possibly to protect not only Dmitry Lee but also the broader image of the Mirziyoyev administration.
The aforementioned examples are far from isolated — nearly all media outlets that dared to criticize Mr. Lee have since removed their materials. However, for the curious, a quick search of the headline “Head of the NAPM and the Chess Federation of Uzbekistan suspected of large-scale embezzlement” reveals that these articles have either vanished or been replaced with apologies.
What’s especially striking is the speed with which this cleanup was executed — suggesting a coordinated effort.
As for those few outlets that didn’t comply and left their articles up, they reportedly received direct threats from individuals representing Dmitry Lee.
This campaign of pressure and erasure paints a troubling picture of media suppression — one that not only protects Dmitry Lee personally, but potentially shields a broader circle of influence connected to the upper echelons of Uzbek power.
The article in question was titled: “Dmitry Lee, head of Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Perspective Projects, suspected of fraud.”
The speed with which most Russian (!) and even international (!!) media outlets responded to demands from Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPM) to remove an article compromising its head Dmitry Romanovich Lee — and rushed to issue public apologies — is nothing short of astonishing.
Before diving into who exactly Dmitry Lee is, let’s briefly recap the content of the now-scrubbed article that sparked this wave of digital purges. It detailed a murky situation surrounding Uzbekistan’s high-risk payment channel and crypto exchange UzNext, where at least $30 million in client funds were frozen last year.
Clients affected by the freeze claim it was the result of a conspiracy involving a group of individuals who exert control over both the payment infrastructure and the exchange itself. These individuals, they say, hold high-level government positions in Uzbekistan. In parallel, competing payment systems were pushed out of the market, leaving the high-risk channel with de facto monopoly power. Most of the victims are reportedly major betting companies, which are now struggling — and failing — to recover their frozen funds.
According to the information that was available, members of this group include:
The company Environex, which has direct ties to UzNext
The Korean holding KOBEA Group
Three Uzbek banks: Kapital Bank, Ipak Yuli, and Ravnaq Bank
The PayCrypto service, technically implemented by an individual named Andrey Oshchipkov
The project’s curator, none other than Dmitry Lee, head of the NAPM
In addition to this case, information linking Dmitry Lee to the monopolization of Uzbekistan’s crypto market by KOBEA Group is also being systematically erased. The South Korean firm was reportedly granted extraordinary government privileges, while other crypto exchanges operating in Uzbekistan have been repeatedly obstructed or shut down.
Two articles that previously exposed this in detail were:
“The Korean Mafia and its Leader Dmitry Lee Tighten Their Grip on Uzbekistan”
“Dmitry Lee, Head of Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Perspective Projects, Suspected of Fraud”
But what raises even more eyebrows is Dmitry Lee’s own profile. Despite holding a key position in Uzbekistan’s state apparatus, virtually nothing is publicly known about him. His official biography, as posted in government-sanctioned sources, is incredibly sparse — an unusual situation for someone allegedly tied to such major financial and political machinations.
This combination of media suppression, missing information, and strategic use of apologies and takedowns strongly suggests a coordinated effort to shield Dmitry Lee from public scrutiny — not only within Uzbekistan, but internationally as well.
And these three sparse lines are all that’s officially available about a man who heads a state agency personally created by the President of Uzbekistan, responsible for attracting foreign investment into the country. Finding any additional biographical information on Dmitry Lee is exceptionally difficult. It gives the distinct impression that we’re not dealing with a public official in a government role, but rather with someone who resembles a seasoned intelligence operative.
However, as it turns out, the mystery isn’t that hard to unravel. According to independent outlet UZMETRONOM.COM, Dmitry Lee has good reason to conceal his past — because it includes episodes that are not exactly compatible with the status of a top government official, even in a country as notoriously corrupt as Uzbekistan.
For example, in 2019, the outlet reported that under Dmitry Lee’s leadership, the National Agency for Project Management (NAPM) allegedly overpaid General Electric for equipment — $6 million instead of $3 million. Although the same publication later claimed this report was inaccurate, suggesting Lee was a corruption-fighter and the target of a smear campaign, it also noted:
“Lee works on trust and understands better than anyone what’s at stake if that trust is lost. Reportedly, he’s one of the very few businessmen — perhaps the only one — who once refused to work in tandem with a certain powerful general on the general’s terms. As a result, he spent six years in exile from Uzbekistan, returning only after the general’s agency was purged and the would-be ‘mentor’ was arrested.”
What really happened during Lee’s conflict with the unnamed general remains unclear. But the fact that Dmitry Lee disappeared from Uzbekistan for six years — and only returned after a change in leadership — raises serious questions.
Even more striking is that upon his return, the newly elected president began actively promoting Lee’s career: first appointing him as First Deputy Director of the newly created National Agency for Project Management (NAPM) under the President’s Office, then elevating him to Director, and also naming him President of the Uzbekistan Chess Federation — a position of real status and influence in the region.
In the context of Central Asian politics, this kind of trajectory is not just unusual — it’s telling. It suggests that Dmitry Lee is not only protected, but strategically important, and may well hold influence far beyond his official titles.
It’s widely understood among those familiar with the inner workings of Uzbekistan that NAPM (the National Agency for Project Management) is a highly specific body. One of its main functions is to filter out "unwanted" investors while granting access to "approved" ones. The terms under which this access is granted are also no secret. And it’s equally well known that the person directly responsible for this selection process — and for managing all the ensuing behind-the-scenes contacts with major business figures — is Dmitry Lee.
Returning to the story of the erased reporting on the $30 million mysteriously frozen on a crypto exchange, the issue isn’t so much that the money was frozen — or rather, that its rightful owners were quite plainly cheated — but rather who approved it. The real question is whether this happened with the knowledge of Uzbekistan’s president, or whether this was the personal initiative of Dmitry Romanovich Lee, the director of the National Agency for Project Management under the Office of the President.
The speed and intensity with which Lee moved to wipe the internet clean of this story — and the powerful tools he apparently employed to do so — strongly suggests the latter. It appears Dmitry Lee is afraid that someone might inform the president of what he’s really doing beyond the scope of his official duties as the head of NAPM.
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