In the Tashkent region, four Uzbek citizens were detained while trying to illegally sell large sums of Turkmen manats. This is reported by the Uz newspaper with reference to the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the General Prosecutor's Office and the State Security Service of Uzbekistan.
Two cases of attempted sale of currency are reported:
• two citizens R. B. and O. A. in collusion intended to sell to citizen R. 77,900 Turkmen manats for $6,500 (12 manats per dollar);
• citizens B.A. and A.K. tried to sell 213,000 manats to citizen R. (it is not clear whether this citizen is the same person as in the first case) 213,000 manats for $13,000 and 60 million soums (11.6 manat per dollar).
A criminal case was initiated against the detainees under Article 177 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan (illegal acquisition or sale of currency values).
It remains unclear who and why might be interested in buying large sums of Turkmen manats abroad at a fairly high rate. Recall that the dollar exchange rate on the "black market" of Turkmenistan at the moment is 19.5 manats when buying and 19.7 when selling. The state rate remains at the level of 3.5 manats per dollar.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan