Kazakhstan: Arrests of people connected with Nazarbayev’s clan continue
Arrests of people connected with the clan of the country’s first President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, continue in Kazakhstan. Recently, the former managing director of the private company EPO Operator, which previously belonged to Nazarbayev’s daughter, was detained.
According to the Anti-Corruption Agency, the former managing director was detained on suspicion of embezzling more than $27 million.
“The suspect committed theft of entrusted funds by overestimating the cost of recycling decommissioned vehicles, illegally transferring them to Recycling Company, thereby causing damage to the state represented by Zhasyl Damu JSC on an especially large scale. The ex-manager committed criminal acts in 2016-2019 together with other employees of EPO Operator. With the sanction of the court, he was taken into custody,” the Agency explained.
As ACCA has already reported, the former General Director of EPO Operator Svetlana Korotenko was previously arrested on suspicion of embezzlement of over $52 million.
EPO Operator company was engaged in the collection of recycling fees for cars in Kazakhstan. Previously, this enterprise belonged to Aliya Nazarbayeva, the youngest daughter of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The permission for EPO Operator to collect fees was once issued by the then Prime Minister Karim Masimov, who is now under arrest on suspicion of attempting to carry out a coup d’état.
However, after the January events in Kazakhstan, EPO Operator was transferred to the ownership of the state under the donation agreement, that is, it was actually nationalized. And the state joint stock company Zhasyl Damu became the new operator of the collection of recycling fees.
Meanwhile, according to the Anti-Corruption Agency, the heads of several companies, controlled by the previously detained businessman Kairat Satybaldy (the nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev), were also detained.
“The investigation revealed additional facts of theft by companies controlled by Satybaldy – the owners of access railway lines. These persons, with the assistance of government officials, made a multibillion-dollar profit by unjustifiably overstating the tariff for the services of access roads to the city-forming enterprises of the country, which led to an increase in prices for life support services for citizens. The heads of two companies controlled by Satybaldy were detained and taken into custody with the sanction of the court,” the Agency said.
Kairat Satybaldy was detained on March 13 at the airport in Almaty, when he was going to fly to Dubai. On March 16, the anti-corruption agents detained the ex-wife of Nazarbayev’s nephew Gulmira Satybaldy on suspicion of embezzlement of budget funds in an especially large amount (over $1.5 million) in 2021.
