Together they opened Coca-Cola Bottlers Uzbekistan (CCBU), owned in equal parts by Coke's export subsidiary, Coca-Cola Export Corp.

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But Coke continued to do business with CCBU. Maqsudi cites the company's need to keep posting respectable growth.

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By the time he left CCBU in 2001, "we had a year's worth of concentrate in stock, " recalls Maqsudi.

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Most of the goods CCBU imported (sugar, bottling equipment, plastic preforms, labels, caps, etc.) went through the Maqsudi-owned companies.

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He says his companies never made any profits on the Coca-Cola venture and that they played an indispensable role in keeping the CCBU operation afloat.

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In August 2001 the Uzbek tax police came calling, unearthing the disturbing fact that CCBU conducted almost all its transactions through companies owned by the Maqsudi brothers.

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CCBU, headquartered in Tashkent, found all doors open to it.

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Maqsudi, still president of CCBU, remained in New Jersey.

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The Uzbek prosecutor general's office now claims that by overcharging for these imports and taking straightforward trading commissions, the Maqsudis siphoned off much of CCBU's profits and stashed them in offshore accounts to avoid tens of millions of dollars in taxes.

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