Kazakhstan's government is poised to hunt down assets held primarily by former president Nursultan Nazarbayev's inner circle. The plan has caught the eye of corporate intelligence firms abroad.
Fraud, stolen confidential data, libel... Accusations have been flying back and forth between the former and current directors of a set of companies with assets in Kazakhstan. Things are particularly heated between Yerbol Orynbayev, who served as deputy prime minister under former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Ron Wahid, owner of several consultancies that worked for Astana for years.
A former director, dissatisfied with a settlement last year between Kazakhstan and funds linked to the entourage of its former president, is suing the current directors of these firms. This is shedding light on financial operations carried out by veteran investigator Ron Wahid, who has close ties to Kazakhstan.
Astana is hoping to shed more light on the activities of Bolashak Consulting Group, a law firm which was often hired under former justice minister Marat Beketayev.
The Texas-based firm, which conducts "know your customer" (KYC) investigations, has attracted the attention of the Kazakh government for its foreign-held ill-gotten assets probes.
The lawsuit filed against Astana by Jysan Holding, which was managed until recently by members of the previous administration, underlines the country's 'endemic corruption'. This surprising line of defence is also used by businessmen who have been at loggerheads with that government for years.
As well as working to protect the interests of entrepreneurs, Rustam Jursunov is serving as a go-between for proposed legislation on ill-gotten assets and local business leaders, starting with energy magnate Timur Kulibayev.
A group of Kazakh opposition activists are trying to garner support in Washington for their fight to have sanctions imposed on business people close to ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The companies managed by allies and advisers of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev are counter-attacking, as the Kazakh government pursues its efforts to recover their companies' assets.
Kazakh political activists have trained their sights on companies registered in Nevada as part of a drive to speed up ill gotten asset recovery investigations.
A year after the January 2022 protests, Kazakhstan's economic and financial intelligence services are under pressure to either conclude or communicate the preliminary findings of their investigations on ill-gotten assets.
Be it in the UK or the US, members of political opposition groups are moving forward with asset recovery and lobbying after Kazakhstan's presidential elections put these things on hold.
Behind the scenes, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's administration is still talking to US and British law firms about plans to recover assets connected to people in ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev's circles. Their progress is hinged on the outcome of the upcoming political events.
The Kazakh government is examining the credentials of US law firms willing to help it track down assets linked to the former regime.
Against the backdrop of the hunt for assets linked to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the British Kazakh asset manager Jusan Technologies is restructuring, with new British, American and Austrian directors replacing its old Kazakh board members.
The Kazakh government has invited lawyers from several foreign law firms to Nur-Sultan as part of its investigations into assets linked to the former president and his entourage.
Lawyer Vitaliy Voronov looks to have become the go-to figure in the private legal and investigations sector, as interest in the government's investigations into the assets held by former president Nursultan Nazarbayev and his clan grows.
