The billionaire son-in-law of former Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is reportedly in talks to pay about $1 billion to the state in reference to a authorities probe.
Bloomberg has reported that Timur Kulibayev, a former high power sector official married to Nazarbayev’s second daughter Dinara, is negotiating a deal that’s a part of an investigation into wealth gathered throughout his father-in-law’s rule.
Beneath such an settlement, Kulibayev would make a mixture of funds and investments, Bloomberg mentioned, quoting two unnamed sources. The deal wouldn’t embrace any admission of wrongdoing, Bloomberg mentioned.
Individually, the net media publication Orda.kz quoted a supply saying the $1 billion payout might embrace investments in two oil companies companies.
Kulibayev, whose fortune alongside along with his spouse’s is estimated at greater than $10 billion, in line with Forbes, declined to remark by way of his attorneys. He held a number of high-level authorities posts throughout his father-in-law’s rule of oil-rich Kazakhstan, which resulted in 2019 after almost 30 years. Kulibayev and his spouse are majority house owners of Halyk Financial institution, Kazakhstan’s largest lender.
A consultant for Kulibayev on the London-based regulation agency Schillings declined to remark instantly about any proposed settlement, saying it was inappropriate to debate Kazakh authorities affairs.
“Mr. Kulibayev is a patriot, devoted to the sustainable growth and future success of Kazakhstan by way of intensive in-country funding, job-creation, and philanthropy,” the consultant wrote in a press release to ICIJ on Feb. 7. “Throughout diversified holdings and his work with the Halyk Charitable Basis, he has considerably contributed to the nation’s financial and social growth over the past 35 years.
He continues to have interaction with the federal government to determine how greatest to speed up this progress within the coming years. It’s categorically incorrect to seek advice from any contributions as asset restoration.”
Asset restoration usually alludes to a authorities program to reclaim funds that rich, politically influential folks allegedly obtained improperly throughout Nazarbayev’s rule. Beforehand Kulibayev’s attorneys have denied that he did something improper to build up his wealth, which he says he constructed on advantage and enterprise savvy, not on household or state connections.
“Mr Kulibayev has by no means been charged with felony conduct by the Authorities of Kazakhstan, the Asset Restoration Committee of the Basic Prosecutor’s Workplace in Kazakhstan or another Kazakh authority,” his attorneys wrote on Jan. 8 in response to ICIJ questions on any settlement.
Kazakhstan authorities declined to touch upon the Bloomberg story or to substantiate or deny earlier studies that Kulibayev had reached an out-of-court settlement to show over about $1 billion to the state. The asset restoration committee within the prosecutor’s workplace informed ICIJ that details about such agreements is confidential and categorized by regulation.
Final November, the BBC and different media republished info from a Telegram put up suggesting Kulibayev had struck a $1 billion deal to return property to the state.
The studies got here two weeks after the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists despatched detailed inquiries to Kulibayev and his attorneys asking about his enterprise pursuits and the position Western oil firms could have performed in serving to him purchase wealth throughout his father-in-law’s tenure.
Mr Kulibayev strongly denies any suggestion that he improperly benefitted from Caspian pipeline contracts,
— London-based regulation agency Schillings to ICIJ
As a part of their Caspian Cabals investigation revealed on Nov. 22, ICIJ and 26 media companions reviewed tens of 1000’s of leaked and public paperwork and interviewed tons of of sources, together with firm insiders and former executives, in regards to the rise of a important pipeline within the Caspian Sea area and the Kazakh oil fields that feed it. The ICIJ-led investigation revealed how Western oil firms — together with Chevron Corp., ExxonMobil Corp., Shell PLC and Italy’s Eni S.p.A. — ignored bribery dangers and big value overruns to safe their stake within the Kazakhstan-Russia pipeline, then delivered substantial management of it to the Kremlin.
The investigation confirmed that the Western oil companies authorised monetary dealings with firms partly or beforehand owned by Kulibayev, who helped oversee the rise of Kazakhstan’s power sector throughout his father-in-law’s administration.
Kulibayev’s representatives denied he had used his affect to achieve entry to pipeline contracts and disputed that he had been a gatekeeper for the oil trade. They known as ICIJ’s story inaccurate and defamatory, and mentioned it was inflicting their shopper monetary losses.
“Mr Kulibayev strongly denies any suggestion that he improperly benefitted from Caspian pipeline contracts,” Schillings wrote in a Dec. 19 letter to ICIJ. “Mr Kulibayev additionally strongly denies any allegations of wrongdoing made by third events quoted on this article.”
The attorneys additionally mentioned Kulibayev had nothing to do with two contracts explored in ICIJ’s article.“Mr Kulibayev is a clear businessman,” the attorneys wrote on Dec. 4.
In 2022, the federal government below Nazarbayev’s handpicked successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, vowed to clamp down on the theft of state property, face down oligarchs and redistribute the nation’s wealth extra evenly.
ICIJ discovered that Kulibayev’s empire has included greater than 220 firms and trusts in 22 international locations, together with 10 secrecy havens. He and his spouse collectively personal a majority of Kazakhstan’s greatest financial institution, and as his wealth expanded, so did his actual property empire, which features a U.Okay. mansion as soon as owned by Prince Andrew.
In 2022, Kulibayev’s charitable basis donated $4.2 million to government-commissioned well being, schooling and different applications, in line with his attorneys. That was a part of $103 million they mentioned his Halyk Charitable Basis acquired from him and his firms since 2016. Humanitarian causes supported by the muse embrace roughly $65 million to assist flood victims in Kazakhstan’s Atyrau area beginning in early 2024.
Days after the publication of Caspian Cabals, Kazakh media reported that the Asset Restoration Committee below the Prosecutor Basic’s Workplace had not too long ago filed a lawsuit towards Kulibayev, whose property have been categorized as state secrets and techniques, in line with media outlet Orda. The federal government supplied no particulars and declined to say which property could also be in query.
