On July 31, 2023, Judge John G. Költle, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, reportedly ruled in favor of BTA Bank JSC against Triadou SPV SA for over $193 million. 

The court’s decision follows a December 2022 jury verdict that held Triadou liable for embezzlement and illicit enrichment. 

“In addition to the jury’s verdict, the judge, after studying the case file, detailed the rationale for his decision on 66 pages. As a result, the court recognized BTA’s claim against Triadou for trust property and any funds that could be received as a result of the use of BTA funds, as well as satisfied the requirements of BTA in relation to a number of assets of Triadou . 

It is noted that the court recognized the defendant Triadou SPV as a shell company created and controlled by the son-in-law of Mukhtar Ablyazov – Ilyas Khrapunov, which “received more than $ 70 million in money stolen from BTA, which the company invested in real estate in New York and other places in the United States “. 

“As detailed in the court’s findings: ‘Evidence presented in court shows that funds invested on behalf of Triadou in the United States are directly linked to $115.3 million stolen from BTA by Ablyazov through another shell company ,'” the representatives said. “BTA Bank” 

According to BTA Bank, Ilyas Khrapunov claimed to have sold the parent company Triadou SPV to a third party, Philipp Glatz. However, the court concluded that: ” Glatz’s acquisition of Triadou SPV was fictitious , paid for by Ilyas himself, and that Ilyas Khrapunov continued to control Triadou SPV even after the lawsuit began.” 

“The court and jury heard witnesses, including Ablyazov and his accomplices, as well as expert witnesses, who explained the structure of a major fraud committed against BTA. 

The court ruled that the evidence presented by BTA that Ablyazov used BTA’s Corporate Business Department (UKB-6) to steal billions of dollars through “fake loans to offshore companies” is credible and complete , the bank said. 

It is also emphasized that the court came to the following conclusion: 

“Offshore companies that were “clients of the Bank” (UKB-6) were owned or controlled by Ablyazov, and the “loans” issued by him had no economic content. Instead of being transactions between independent parties, the “loans” with the assistance of UKB-6 were intended to conceal the misappropriation of funds by Ablyazov from BTA Bank . 

Ultimately, the court dismissed the testimony of Ablyazov’s accomplices and their alternative explanation of the source of the funds as “not credible.” 

“We were able to prove to the New York judge and jury that Mukhtar Ablyazov defrauded BTA Bank of billions of dollars and laundered stolen money in the United States. This case was an important step in BTA Bank’s efforts to restore justice and was crucial in bringing to justice responsibility of Ablyazov and his accomplices. 

We are grateful for the careful consideration of the evidence by the jury and the United States District Court,” said Matthew L. Schwartz, Managing Partner of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and BTA Representative. 

Other legal cases of Mukhtar Ablyazov 

Recall that criminal cases have been opened against Ablyazov in Kazakhstan and a number of other countries. 

In December 2020, Mukhtar Ablyazov was sentenced in absentia in Russia to 15 years in prison in the BTA Bank case. A Russian court found that in three years – from 2006 to 2009 – Ablyazov, together with his subordinates, stole 58 billion rubles, that is, 330.3 billion tenge, from the bank. 

And in Kazakhstan, a banker was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison – in 2017 he was found guilty of embezzlement. 

In May this year, it was reported that the French Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal to terminate the trial against Mukhtar Ablyazov in the case of breach of trust and money laundering. 

Expulsion of Ablyazov from France 

In early December 2022, it became known that Mukhtar Ablyazov was deprived of his refugee status in France. At the same time, the French media wrote that Ablyazov could face extradition to Kazakhstan. However, in January 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan explained that at the moment Kazakhstan does not have an extradition agreement with France . 

In early July, Ablyazov announced that he had received an order from the executive police that he must leave France, where he has been living for several years, within 30 days and go to a country that is ready to accept him. 

A few days later, BTA Bank, citing an unnamed source, reported that Ablyazov had indeed received a document obliging him to leave French territory within 30 days. 

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that they did not have reliable information that could confirm or refute the information about the expulsion of Ablyazov from France. It was emphasized that the issues of expulsion of foreign citizens belong to the internal affairs of the country. 

Return of Uncle Ablyazov to Kazakhstan 

We also recall that on July 25 , an accomplice and uncle of Mukhtar Ablyazov, Kuanysh Nurgazin, who voluntarily returned to Kazakhstan, was detained at the Almaty airport . 

“Nurgazin is the nominal director of the BSC LLP controlled by Ablyazov. Through illegal lending to this company, Ablyazov and his accomplices stole the funds of BTA Bank on an especially large scale,” the Prosecutor General’s Office reported at the time. 

For 12 years he hid in Lithuania, where he received refugee status. 

Later, Kuanysh Nurgazin told why he decided to return to his homeland . 

According to Nurgazin, at that time he did not even suspect about Ablyazov’s machinations – he found out about it only after law enforcement agencies began to identify large financial thefts in the bank. 

Source

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In Kazakhstan, Ablyazov was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for murder, another sentence related to the creation of a criminal community, embezzlement and money laundering. In Russia, the ex-banker was sentenced to 15 years for embezzlement of almost 60 billion rubles.

The French authorities demanded that the former head of the Kazakh BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov, leave the country within 30 days. He announced this on his Facebook page (owned by Meta, whose activities in Russia are recognized as extremist and banned). Ablyazov’s extradition is simultaneously sought by Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The former banker has been in Europe for more than ten years.

Former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov has received an order from the French authorities to leave the country within 30 days. He announced this on his Facebook page.

“I was given 30 days to leave France. I am suing,” Ablyazov wrote.

The ex-banker also posted a video message on his page in which he stated that he had previously received political asylum in France (Le Figaro wrote last December that the refugee status was revoked by the decision of the French court), and now he has neither a visa nor a passport. In addition, Ablyazov said that court hearings against him in France would resume in the near future, and for this time he should not leave the country. The proceedings in a French court on episodes of his abuse of power and money laundering decided to resume at the end of May.

Ablyazov left Kazakhstan in 2009 after his former head of BTA Bank was declared bankrupt and nationalized. First, in Kazakhstan, the ex-banker was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison on the case of creating a criminal community, embezzlement of other people’s property, legalization of proceeds from crime, abuse of power, and was given a life sentence on charges of murdering the former head of the bank, Yerzhan Tatishev .

At the end of 2020, the Tagansky Court of Moscow sentenced Ablyazov in absentia to 15 years in prison in the case of embezzlement of almost 60 billion rubles. In Ukraine, the ex-banker is accused of embezzling $400 million. Kazakhstan does not have an extradition agreement with France, while at the same time, the French side has such an agreement with Russia and Ukraine.

Back in 2015, the then Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, signed the decision to extradite Ablyazov to Russia, but later the State Council of the country cancelled this decision, seeing in the request “the pursuit of political goals.” The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia then stated that Paris violated the “principle of the inevitability of punishment for crimes committed.”

Source

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The fake NGO is becoming a major problem in Brussels. Typically, such a body would purport to represent human rights interests: it is always going to be difficult for a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), for example, to say “no” to an approach by a human rights NGO – but easy for NGO to use the cover to seek to then further the political and ecumenic interests of their true backer.

Qatargate drew great attention in Brussels to the activities of one former Socialist MEP (its interesting to note how often socialists pop up in fraud scandals) one Pier Antonio Panzeri, who sat in the European Parliament from 2004-2019.

Not so long before leaving office, Panzeri was photographed in the European Parliament alongside convicted fraudster Mukhtar Ablyazov and one Lyudmila Kozlovska, President of the “human rights NGO” Open Dialogue Foundation, (ODF) which has widely been discredited for being little more than a mouthpiece for Ablyazov and other members of what can best be described as his “crime syndicate”.

Perhaps this photograph shows us the moment when Panzeri got ideas of his own – the Qatargate scandal, which allegedly involved MEPs and others taking bribes from the government of Qatar, relied to a significant degree on the cover of Panzeri’s one (possibly two,) NGOs. 

It should be pointed out at this point that Panzeri has admitted to his guilt -— including on bribes he says he made – in return for  a reduced sentence.

Certainly Panzeri also has been connected to Mukhtar Ablyazov by the UK press: Ablyazov has outstanding jail time to serve in the UK in connection with his criminal activities).

“When the police raided the home of the former socialist MEP and lawyer Pier Antonio Panzeri and found €500,000 in cash as part of the most serious corruption case in the European Parliament in decades, nobody noticed one of his clients was an oligarch who is the subject of the biggest civil fraud case in British legal history.” The Spectator, 14 January 2023.

Ablyazov has denied any connection with Panzeri suggesting that he himself should sue The Spectator, but unfortunately he claims he lacks the funds.

In 2016, it has been reported, Panzeri had “pushed through” what was to become a “motion for a resolution” in the European Parliament which, although in itself has no legislative value, is a valuable tactic to raise an individual’s interests at high level. Motions are often deliberately misrepresented by those involved in order to give the impression of legislative value, (it is easy to fool national press in this regard, as they generally seek easy stories where the EU is concerned) and so are therefore a valuable tool, certainly worthy of investment by, for example, an international fugitive looking for political asylum. 

A recent report, published in Brussels, has taken the step of naming 18 former and current MEPs providing “evidence” of “collusion involving Members of the European Parliament and European Politicians.”

Many of the MEPs named in the report are known well to EU Today. Most are assiduous, hard working honest politicians. A small number are not. The names of the MEPs concerned can be found in pages 4-6 of the report. 

The evidence presented in the report says not so much about the MEPs themselves, but speaks volumes as to how the European Parliament has allowed itself to be infiltrated by those with the resources to hijack the process.

For example, in November 2020 eight MEPs tabled a written question to the European Commission concerning a highly dubious political party in Kazakhstan stating that: ”at least 177,000 ‘Koshe Partiyasy’ supporters are at risk of prosecution.” Koshe Partiyasy is an unregistered party which appears sympathetic to Ablyazov (who also has his own party – ‘Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan,) and is occasionally mentioned by Open Dialogue Foundation in its coverage of Kazakh politics: in reality the membership of Koshe Partiyasy would likely be best described as “four men and a dog.”

Spanish MEP Sanchez Amor is one MEP of particular interest: he appears to have written endless letters in support of Ablyazov and others. He has also been a supporter of convicted Russian fraudster Nail Malyutin, who, somewhat unsurprisingly, is himself another convicted criminal whose cause is championed by ODF.

ODF has itself been accused of working with Russian security services and of receiving funding from Moscow:  Luke Coffey, Former Director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy, writing for The Heritage Foundation (Aug. 5th, 2019) had this to say: “the Brussels-based Open Dialogue Foundation was accused of working with Russian security services and of receiving funding from Moscow to spread misinformation in countries that opposed the Kremlin’s policies. 

“The Kremlin link was dismissed by the foundation, but considering its past support for dubious individuals (for example, convicted fraudster Mukhtar Ablyazov and Uzbek-born businessman Nail Malyutin, who is currently in prison and who has close links to organized crime), it’s not surprising that people question its wider motives.”

It is worth mentioning in this context that Bartosz Kramek, board member of ODF and husband of the NGO’s president, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, has himself been accused of money laundering in the UK in 2019, and in Poland in 2021. Most of ODF’s more prominent clients appear to have been accused and convicted of money laundering at some point. Most appear, to have been directly involved with Mukhtar Ablyazov or indeed, in at least one case, to have married into his family.

Although, in the wake of Qatargate it has recently established a “Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation,” the European Parliament moves very slowly. 

And does anybody really believe that those Chinese and Russian journalists who have been for many years sitting in on European Parliamentary Committee meetings on matters as important as economic policy, and security and defence are really “journalists?

Source

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Peter Sztyk, a Canadian lawyer and entrepreneur who also goes by the name “Petro”, has joined a group of foreign consultants who will manage the Office of Strategic Programs, which the NOC inaugurated in February 15 during a meeting with local oil industry executives in Benghazi.

Who is Peter Sztyk?

The Canadian lawyer graduated in 1993 from Concordia University with bachelor in political science. In 1996, he earned a Bachelor of Laws from Université de Montréal before getting admitted to the Bar of Quebec in 1998 and later to the New York Bar in 2004. He speaks French, English, Ukrainian and Russian. According to Bloomberg, he became the CEO of New World Oil & Gas company in 2014.

Since 2020, he has been working with Canadian legal firm Delegatus, which states that his past experience prior to joining the firm include “the restructuring of the investment holding structure of an industrial holdings group with significant assets in Kazakhstan”.

Delegatus also says that he “acted as lead counsel and coordinating attorney for counsels from applicable jurisdictions including Kazakhstan, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.”

Connection to a Major Fraud Scheme

The self-described “transactional lawyer” and his American wife Botagoz Jardemalie are allegedly tied to the embezzlement of a Kazakhstani bank known as BTA Bank, which has been described as one of the world’s biggest financial frauds totaling US$5 billion, according to British newspaper The Guardian.

The bank’s former chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov perpetrated the fraud. The Kazakh government discovered the scheme in 2009, when it nationalized the bank. He was accused of “fraud on an epic scale” by using a web of shell companies and associates to siphon billions of dollars before fleeing to the UK.

After BTA Bank’s new management successfully applied for an injunction to freeze his assets in the UK, the presiding judge, Nigel Teare, ruled in 2013 that the fugitive oligarch had defrauded BTA Bank, saying that the evidence showed he had participated in a “dishonest scheme” to “misappropriate monies,” according to Reuters.

Incidentally, when Ablyazov became the sole owner of BTA Bank in 2005, Sztyk’s wife Botagoz Jardemalie was hired as managing director. She then went on to become a member of BTA Bank’s management board in October 2008, according to Open Source Investigations.

In January of 2020, American news website BuzzFeed obtained documents which link 25 of Ablyazov’s shell companies to Jardemalie. According to BuzzFeed, she fled Kazakhstan around the same time as he did and later moved to Belgium.

One of the companies used to conceal and move Ablyazov’s funds is controlled by Dubai-based British accountant named Eesh Aggarwal, as per BuzzFeed’s report. Aggarwal is described in a court declaration as “a financial advisor loyal to Ablyazov” and BuzzFeed’s documents shows direct link between Aggarwal and Sztyk.

Separate evidence reviewed by BuzzFeed shows that in summer 2013 an entity controlled by Aggarwal called Beron agreed to transfer $2 million to a company controlled by a Russian lawyer named Georgy Gomshiashvili. Beron is one of the companies Aggarwal is alleged to have used to administer the $500 million.

One of the documents seen by BuzzFeed shows that in August 2013 Gomshiashvili was introduced to Aggarwal by Sztyk. According to BuzzFeed, the same cache of documents also suggests that funds from Beron made their way to a company owned by Jardemalie.

On 4 May 2013, Kazakhstani authorities issued an arrest warrant on against Jardemalie’s, accusing her of “misappropriation or embezzlement of entrusted property” in relation to the positions she held at BTA Bank, according to Open Source Investigations. However, there are no public reports of whether or not Sztyk himself is the subject of any legally punitive procedures in Kazakhstan or anywhere else.

New Role in Libya

Established as part of a strategic plan for developing the country’s oil and gas sector, the Office of Strategic Programs will oversee the implementation of the plan using “modern methods and capabilities,” according to NOC’s chairman Farhat Bengdara.

During the inauguration ceremony in Benghazi last month, Sztyk was pictured among the panel of foreign consultants which are tasked with managing the office.

It is unclear how Sztyk, with his publicly questionable history, ended up on the final list of foreign consultants authorized by NOC to manage the Office of Strategic Programs. The NOC never disclosed whether there was a selection criteria or any form of vetting for the foreign consultants.

Until today, the NOC still hasn’t even disclosed how exactly would Sztyk, and the rest of the foreign consultants, manage the Office of Strategic Programs.

As Libya’s main source of economic welfare, the country’s oil industry has been the subject of political strife and forced blockade by the country’s warring parties who are competing to control oil for leverage.

With an allegedly corrupt consultant in charge, it seems now that the future of the NOC’s Office of Strategic Programs, and ultimately the future of Libya’s oil sector, are facing new threat from within.

Source: The Libya Update

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Kenes Rakishev. An entrepreneur, philanthropist, former special envoy for Kazakhstan, head of the Kazakh boxing federation, a family man, and most importantly, a man of success. The backstory of Kenes Rakishev and his philanthropies is a complex one, with multiple factors and numerous actors involved.

The 40-something Kazakh is an interesting study of human success. Ultra boyishly shy, he is the poster boy of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s “New Kazakhstan” vision for the future and better Kazakhstan. He received his education in the UK, fortunately married into the Kazakhstan elite clan and positioned quietly in the affairs of the state. Kenes’ wife, Aselle Tasmagambetova is the daughter of the former prime minister and holds a success story of her own. Together, the couple represents the future blueprint of a modern centrality at the crossroads of Central Asia, Europe and Asia, and still deeply embedded in Kazakh culture.

Besides his fast stellar rise to fame, Kenes Rakishev has his ups and downs. Though it seems there is more ups than downs but unfortunately, he is targeted by smear campaigns by international hackers and fake news campaigns ‘journalists-for-hire’ funded by powerful crime figures. Such was the reality of his life. There were bizarre claims even made by one of Europe’s experienced journalists, which resulted in a public apology to the Kazakh former special envoy to US.

“Kenes Rakishev is an interesting study of human success. A well-known entrepreneur, kind philanthropist, former special envoy for Kazakhstan, head of the Kazakh boxing federation and most importantly, a family man.”

Looking past the many smears and attempts of insults, Kenes Rakishev is a successful businessman and tech investor in Kazakhstan, with interests in various industries, including mining, technology, and finance. Both husband and wife are actively involved in philanthropy work and generously supporting various causes and organizations in Kazakhstan and abroad.

However, Rakishev’s success and wealth have also made him a target of criticisms and scrutinies, especially in the context of Kazakhstan’s complex political and economic landscape. Some critics have accused him of benefiting financially and socially from his close ties with the Kazakh government.

Amidst the false reports, it is important to note that he and his family have not been charged or sanctioned by any U.S. or European government. Due to his tech savviness and careful business acumen, he rose to become an influential and well-connected individual in Kazakhstan. He was never involved in any illegal or unethical activities. While he may have had dinners and taken photographs with political leaders, it was all done all in a day’s work for Kenes whose aim was to do his job as appointed by the President Tokayev and the Kazakh government.

One such controversy was his so-called connection with an organized crime figure, Felix Sater. Sater has criminal history links to organized crime in New York, acted as an informer on the New York mob, the Russians and bizarrely, Osama bin Laden too protected him from jailtime. In 2019, a federal judge unsealed a 5k1 letter that outlined the extent of Felix Sater’s cooperation with law enforcement authorities. His cooperation was taken into consideration during his sentencing. Evidently, Sater’s testimonies on the mob at the U.S. House Intelligence Committee were viewed with some skepticism. In 2019, Vice ran an article that raised questions about Sater’s credibility and the accuracy of his claims. The article highlighted concerns about Sater’s criminal history, his associations with organized crime figures, and his tendency to exaggerate or fabricate his connections to influential individuals. While Sater’s credibility may be debatable, however it does not invalidate his statements and claims.

And then there’s Mukhtar Ablyazov, Rakishev’s long drawn political opponent. Once a media darling of the liberal press, his novelty has worn off. He was chairman of the board of directors at BTA Bank, where he was later found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering of the bank’s funds. Ablyazov was found guilty and convicted in the U.K and in the United States, while the future for this fraudster and his associates looks dim in France. In early March 2022 a French court rejected his political claims and request for political asylum.

The U.K. Supreme court opening statement pointed out that Ablyazov executed an “elaborate attempt to conceal his assets” to avoid prosecution by the bank, at the time when the bank, BTA was nationalized. The U.K. courts frowned upon Ablyazov and his associates’ positions. The appeals by the Mukhtar Ablyazov and his associates were rejected by the U.K. Supreme court.

Mukhtar Ablyazov has since fled from U.K after a 22-month jail sentence in the UK court was handed down. Currently, he is rumored to be in political exile in either France or Spain. On December 9, 2016, the highest French court (Conseil d’Etat) banned the extradition of Ablyazov to Russia and Ukraine. The U.K. court orders chose to explicitly illustrate the frauds committed by Mukhtar Ablyazov.

While Ablyazov was under investigations, the Kazakh administration executed a controlling stake holding on BTA Bank and appointed at the time a person the Kazakh state trusted. Kenes Rakishev was this man. Rakishev managed to save the company, fixed it and sold his stake. Mergers and acquisitions are his specialty after all.

“It was a national security crisis”, a person close to the matter spoke on grounds of anonymity. “Despite the western media celebrating Mukhtar Ablyazov as somewhat a hero, the truth is rather different”, she said. The criminal courts in the United Kingdom, the United States and now France has taken him into account, thus the ex-banker has limited room to move around in the European Union.

“The president looked around and when it came to the critical moment, he turned to Kenes Rakishev to save the employees, the bank and honestly, Kazakhstan. It was a national security crisis. Rakishev has done his job and he was compensated, which is normal.” she added. “Once the job was done, he left, sold his shares and he went back to look after his family.” So Kenes saved the day. And the bank.

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Mukhtar Ablyazov, a notorious Kazakhstan fraudster, was convicted of organizing the 2004 murder of Erzhan Tatishev, He was involved in investigations in four jurisdictions, namely Russia, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, and the United States and was found guilty by courts of his peers. His political asylum claims were dismissed by the French court and so Ablyazov and his gang are now facing judgement. At the end of day, Mukhtar Ablyazov is merely a power-hungry criminal. Not more, not less. His case showed that the legal system does work, it puts the bad guys behind bars.

Ablyazov was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering in the U.S. Court for $218 million against BTA Bank in December 2022. Triadou SPV S.A. is a shell company created and controlled by Ablyazov’s son-in-law Ilyas Khrapunov. Triadou received more than $70 million in money stolen from BTA, which it invested in real estate in New York City and elsewhere in the US.

“Mukhtar Ablyazov was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering in the U.S. Court for $218 million against BTA Bank in December 2022.”

For the charges against BTA bank, Ablyazov has received various court sentences worldwide which led him to live on the run. In 2009, Ablyazov fled to London, where he lived with his wife and four children in luxurious Carlton House, in the Bishops Avenue area of north London. In 2011, the UK Home Office granted Ablyazov asylum amid claims that he had been the target of assassination attempts.

In February 2012, the UK High Court ruled that Ablyazov had committed serious and repeated breaches and sentenced him in absentia to 22 months in prison for contempt. However he managed to leave the UK to France two days earlier before the sentence was announced. In 2015, then French Prime Minister Mauel Valls signed off on his extradition, but France’s Asylum Court overruled it. France granted political asylum to Ablyazov in September 2020. But in December 2022, the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) of France rejected Ablyazov’s application for political asylum in France. This left the convicted criminal a few choices. Surrender for extradition, flee France to the usual crime sanctuaries in UAE or South America, or cut a deal surrendering to multiple counts of his corruption charges.

Ablyazov is also wanted in Russia and Ukraine, for suspicion of embezzling some $5-billion. The Moscow Tagansky District Court sentenced Ablyazov to 15 years in prison in absentia on embezzlement charges on December 29, 2020 after finding him guilty in a criminal case regarding the alleged embezzlement of 58 billion rubles ($790 million) between 2006 and 2009.

Apart of the embezzlement charges, Ablyazov has also been convicted in absentia on a murder charge and sentenced to life in prison by the court in Kazakhstan’s southern city of Taraz on Nov. 27, 2018. The court handed the sentence after finding Ablyazov guilty of organizing the 2004 murder of Erzhan Tatishev, the head of TuranAlem bank — which was later renamed BTA. After Tatishev’s death, which was ruled an accident at the time, Ablyazov became the bank’s chief.

Despite living abroad, Ablyazov claimed in an interview with Reuters that he was the leader of opposition and protests in Kazakhstan. He also urged Western states to interfere in the events in Kazakhstan to prevent the republic’s rapprochement with Russia. It is rather telling that none of the claims Ablyazov penned out.

Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko said that the Ablyazov case was an extraordinary issue related to law enforcement and the court system, not only in Kazakhstan, but also in Europe and the United States. Vasilenko added that trials related to Ablyazov would be held in the United States, Britain, and France with the participation of Kazakhstan’s Justice Ministry, the Almaty mayor’s office, and BTA bank.

Vasilenko confirmed that the meeting between Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on November 29, 2022 did not discuss the case of Ablyazov. His statement debunked the previous report of French newspaper Le Figaro that the two presidents talked about the case during the meeting.

The Kazakh government and parliament have done various efforts to bring Ablyazov back to the country. Mazhilis, the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament has approved the interstate agreement between France and Kazakhstan on criminal matters. However, the document will not be able to help Kazakhstani authorities make Ablyazov come back to the country due to an absence of arrangements for the mutual extradition of criminals with France, said Prosecutor General Aset Chindaliyev.

The agreement requires Kazakhstan and France to follow the rules of mutual legal assistance in anything linked to criminal matters. It is expected that by sticking to this practice, the two sides will be more effective in crime prevention.

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The “Qatargate” scandal is only in its infancy. But it could go far beyond the case of the small Gulf emirate. L-POST.be was able to reveal, exclusively, that Pier-Antonio Panzeri, the former MEP at the center of the corrupt group was also a diligent lawyer for a former Kazakh oligarch, Muktar Ablyazov, who has just been rejected his status as an asylum seeker in France, the National Court for the Right of Asylum (CNDA) having established that he was not a real political refugee, but that he was not seeking this status to protect himself from lawsuits for a diversion of several billion dollar.

For the European Parliament, this is a real earthquake. On one Friday afternoon, after the wave of searches and the arrests made to uncover a corrupt network linked to Qatar, the police intercepted a man in a hurry at the exit of the Sofitel hotel from Place Jourdan, a stone’s throw from the building of the European Assembly. 

In his suitcases, the investigators discovered around 600,000 euros. And the man was not just anyone: he is the father of a vice-president of the European Parliament, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, whose companion had been arrested a few hours earlier. The investigating judge Michel Claise decided, in the process, to search the Brussels home of Ms. Kaili. Because of the seizure made in the luggage of his father, the operation could be carried out in flagrante delicto, the immunity of the parliamentarian no longer comes into play. 

In the apartment occupied by Ms. Kaili, 150,000 euros were seized. All in small denominations. These amounts were in addition to the approximately 600,000 euros seized on the same morning at the former parliamentarian (Italian socialist) Pier-Antonio Panzeri. In all therefore, the amount seized was at least 1,350,000 euros. 

“In general, seizures of this order, we only make in cases of organized crime, and, most often, drug trafficking”, said the specialized investigator in his report. “These are not only honest sums citizens keep under their mattress. ”

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