JUNE 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bloomberg News reported that Austrian prosecutors have accused nine bankers in Austria of bribing foreign bankers, including Adib Mayaleh, head of the Azerbaijani Central Bank. Mr Mayaleh denied he had taken a bribe. He has never been charged with corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities have stepped up their hunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former chairman of BTA Bank.
First, in April, police in Almaty arrested Ablyazov’s former business partner Erlan Tatishev. Now, on May 29, Italian police swooped on Ablyazov’s wife, Alma Shalabayeva, and their 6-year-old daughter who were living in Rome.
The actual whereabouts of Ablyazov, wanted by British police for lying in court, is unknown, although media reports said Ms Shalabayeva was carrying a Central African Republic passport with a fake name when she was detained.
Lawyers for Ms Shalabayeva said the raid was illegal and that she held a Kazakh passport with a Latvian residency permit allowing her to stay in the EU. The Kazakh prosecutor-general has accused Ms Shalabayeva of being involved in various crimes.
Regardless, it appears defeating Ablyazov in court was not enough for Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
He has long considered Ablyazov to be dangerous. After fleeing Kazakhstan in 2009, Ablyazov set himself up in London. He funded political parties and media projects with the thinly disguised aim of unseating Mr Nazarbayev.
The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of stealing billions of dollars from BTA Bank, trying to overthrow the government and plotting to bomb public buildings.
This year a British court ruled against Ablyazov and ordered him to repay the Kazakh state billions of dollars.
British judges also decided that Ablyazov had lied in court. He has been on the run since 2012.
The net is tightening and the Kazakh authorities may soon have their man. This might, though, be the easy bit.
What to do with Albyazov then is possibly more complicated.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Italy detained and deported back to Kazakhstan the wife and daughter of fugitive billionaire banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Ablyazov, ex-chairman of BTA Bank, to be one of his biggest enemies.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish TV aired fresh documents appearing to show more evidence that telecoms giant TeliaSonera paid Gulnara Karimova, the all-powerful eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to win a 3G licence in Uzbekistan. TeliaSonera is the subject of a Swedish investigation into corruption allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested ex-PM Vano Merabishvili and ex-health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili and charged them with stealing public funds. Supporters of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili say the government of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili has targeted them since winning an election in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Much to the irritation of the Kyrgyz authorities, prosecutors in the US dropped a fraud case against Maxim Bakiyev, son of the ousted former president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The US authorities wanted to extradite Mr Bakiyev from London where he has lived since a 2010 coup in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz authorities accuse Mr Bakiyev of corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.
Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.
Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.
According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.
Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.
The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.
Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.
According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British fraud investigators opened an investigation into Kazakh miner ENRC after several senior executives resigned following allegations of corruption, media reported. ENRC is listed on the London stock exchange but its three main Kazakh shareholders have said they are looking into taking the business private.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police detained Yerlan Tatishev, a former director of BTA Bank which the government bailed out in 2009, on embezzlement charges, media reported. BTA Bank’s former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is currently on the run having been found guilty of perjury by a British court.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The largest stake-holders in Kazakh miner ENRC, Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Patokh Chodiev, said they were considering teaming up with Kazakhstan’s government to buy back the company. ENRC is listed in London and is the subject of a corporate governance review.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
