Kazakhstan Billionaires ‘Named And Shamed’ In U.K. Parliament By Senior Politician As Corruption Sanctions Near

Kazakhstan-based billionaires price over $14 billion are more likely to be targets of latest sanctions, says a number one member of the U.Okay. parliament. Labour MP for Barking Margaret Hodge instructed the home on Thursday night that the U.Okay. must assume accountability for turning a “blind eye” and serving to the Kazakh regime “launder and spend its soiled cash.”

Following fuel-price protests that swept Kazakhstan final month–leaving 225 lifeless, 4,500 injured and 10,000 arrested, and main former president Nursultan Nazarbayev to lastly go away the nation–politicians have been debating the U.Okay.’s function in preserving the nation’s ruling regime. The wealth of Kazakhstan’s elite businessmen has now fallen below the highlight, particularly the function of monetary crime enabled by London’s banks, authorized providers and using prime actual property as a retailer for ill-gotten features. 

Billionaires Accused

In a damning speech drawing on historic allegations of wrongdoing, and protected against defamation claims from the billionaires by parliamentary privilege, Hodge known as out quite a few the nation’s billionaires and best-known enterprise figures. 

Timur Kulibaev and his spouse Dinаra Nazarbayeva (Nazarbayev’s daughter), Hodge mentioned, “Ha[ve] confronted cash laundering and bribery investigations” in non U.Okay. jurisdictions, including that Kulibaev was price $2.9 billion, in line with Forbes, and owns at the very least $80 million of U.Okay. actual property. Kulibaev and Nazarbayeva denied the allegations and Swiss prosecutors dropped the case in opposition to Kulibaev in 2013.

Hodge accused Vladimir Kim–Kazakhstan’s richest individual–of being a proxy proprietor of Kazakhmys plc, the primary Kazakh firm to listing on the London Inventory Trade. A World Witness report alleges the corporate is definitely managed by Nazarbayev. Kazakhmys plc board denied the allegations and instructed World Witness that the corporate had undergone complete due diligence procedures earlier than the corporate listed in 2005.

Mining tycoons Alexander Machkevich and Patokh Chodiev from Eurasian Pure Assets Company Restricted (ENRC) caught flak from Hodge, over a 2013 investigation from the U.Okay.’s severe fraud workplace that adopted allegations of bribery to African political figures. The U.Okay.-based Legislation Society Gazette reported in June that the SFO had but to deliver any fees on ENRC who deny any wrongdoing. The investigation is ongoing.

And, lastly, Hodge known as out businessman Bulat Utemuratov over his function within the Nazarbayev regime as his former chief of employees. Utemuratov made his fortune in 2007 when Italian financial institution UniCredit bought 92% of Kazakhstan’s ATF Financial institution for $2.1 billion.

Different tycoons identified to Forbes readers had been talked about within the speech too, together with Kairat Satybaldy, the mysterious former intelligence chief who was as soon as a significant shareholder of London listed fintech Kaspi. (Kaspi made billionaires of its main shareholders Mikhail Lomtadze and Vyacheslav Kim in October 2020.) Hodge describes Satybaldy as “having fun with important wealth by way of offshore buildings” as a “key playe[r] in Nazarbayev’s internal circle, concerned within the present energy battle that’s undermining peace and safety.” A spokesperson for the Nationwide Safety Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the place Satybaldy is first deputy chairman, didn’t instantly reply to the allegation by e mail.

Nurali Aliyev, Nazarbayev’s grandson, was topic to a failed try by the U.Okay. authorities to make use of a so-called McMafia order to elucidate his possession of quite a few London properties, together with one on London’s prestigious Billionaire’s Row.

Hodge cited Forbes’ estimated internet worths for these Kazakh billionaires. In all, Forbes estimates the collective internet worths of the tycoons known as out by Hodge to be round $14 billion. Hodge concluded her speech by demanding the federal government commit extra than simply lip service to a brand new financial crime invoice that may assist enforcement companies sort out corruption. “I ask the Minister whether or not he’ll take into account the people I’ve named and impose sanctions on those that have stolen from their nation, laundered their cash right here, used U.Okay. buildings to cover their ill-gotten features, used the golden visa route to achieve entry to the U.Okay. or dedicated human rights abuses. Will he act now?”

Hodge’s assertion comes as half of a bigger shift within the U.Okay. to tackle kleptocrats. Final week the London Instances reported that U.S. officers had been annoyed with the U.Okay. over its tolerance of soiled cash arriving from former soviet states, claiming that it could hinder the flexibility to totally impose sanctions on Russian president Vladimir Putin over aggression on the Ukraine border.

A supply in Washington instructed the Instances: “Putin doesn’t maintain his cash overseas, it’s all within the kleptocrats’ names and a hell of lots of it’s sitting in homes in Knightsbridge and Belgravia proper below your authorities’s noses.”

​​Paul Massaro, an anti-corruption adviser to Congress, instructed Forbes: “It’s excessive time that the U.Okay. start purging the blood cash infesting its system and it’s heartening to see MP Hodge handle this menace head on by calling for highly effective sanctions in opposition to identified kleptocrats. Naming and shaming works.”

Hodge is ready to see if the federal government’s newly expanded Russian sanctions will goal UK-based billionaires within the coming weeks.

A spokesperson for Timur Kulibaev and Dinаra Nazarbayeva didn’t instantly reply to the allegations.

A spokesperson for Alexander Machkevich and Patokh Chodiev didn’t instantly reply to the allegations.

A spokesperson for Vladimir Kim didn’t instantly reply to the allegations.

A spokesperson for Bulat Utemuratov didn’t instantly reply to the allegations.