The United States has officially asked Swedish authorities to freeze more than $30 million in assets tied to investigations into possible bribery and money laundering involving Uzbek officials. In a letter obtaned by RFE/RL from a Swedish investigative journalist, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote that U.S. investigations had revealed that the Russian-Norwegian company VimpelCom, Russian-owned MTS, and Swedish-Finnish company TeliaSonera had "paid bribes to Uzbek officials to obtain mobile telecommunications business in Uzbekistan."