Page 6 - FSUOGM Week 49

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

Kazakh elite silent on graft

allegations concerning ex-

president's son in law

Timur Kulibayev is a billionaire who has numerous business

interests in the oil trade, real estate and mining. He has long denied
accusations that his wealth derives from his family connections

KAZAKHSTAN THE Kazakh elites and authorities have mark-up from the price it paid for the metal.
remained largely silent in the face of the Decem- In one cited instance, an ETK company in
ber 3 Financial Times bombshell report alleging Singapore allegedly agreed to buy steel produced
that Kazakh oligarch Timur Kulibayev, son- by China’s Jiangsu Shagang at $935 a tonne and
in-law of former Kazakh president Nursultan sold steel to Russian pipeline manufacturer
Nazarbayev, raked in tens of millions of dollars TMK for $1,500 per tonne. ETK was said to have
as part of a secret project linked to the construc- made a gross profit of $75mn as TMK’s contract
tion of a natural gas pipeline from Central Asia saw a total outlay of “approximately $200mn”.
to China. At the time of the pipeline deal, financed
To anyone familiar with the level of power with Chinese bank loans, Kulibayev managed
and influence the top elites enjoy in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. It “oversaw
the lack of reaction will of course come as no the state companies that awarded contracts to
Timur Kulibayev is the surprise, but it should perhaps not go unnoted. build the pipelines across Kazakhstan,” wrote
son in law of former Basing its report on leaked emails and other Tom Burgis, author of both the FT article and
Kazakh president documents, the UK financial daily claimed the book “Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Con-
Nursultan Nazarbayev. that Kulibayev arranged contracts that saw quering the World,” published in September.
Moscow-based ETK receive $53mn as part of Kulibayev is married to Nazarbayev's middle
what was a hidden scheme and that the major daughter Dinara. The oligarch has long denied
part of that was siphoned to a company that he accusations that his wealth derives from his fam-
controlled. ily connections.
Kulibayev, a billionaire who has served on “[Kulibayev] has never had any interest or stake
Russian energy giant Gazprom’s board since in any ETK entity, directly, indirectly or via any
2011, has numerous business interests in the oil kind of nominee arrangement or similar scheme,"
trade, real estate and mining. Similar reports to Kulibayev’s lawyers told the Financial Times.
the latest exposé have previously lifted the cur- ETK is a company officially owned by Rus-
tain on alleged connections of Kulibayev, but in sian businessman Alexander Karmanov.
those cases too the stories made no impact on
the status quo in the Central Asian nation. One The whistleblower and Aisultan
example is an investigation by Swiss research and The newspaper report refers to emails
advocacy group Public Eye in 2018. It suggested sent between 2008-2014 and leaked by a
that major energy trader Vitol was involved in a whistleblower.
partnership indirectly involving Kulibayev that The report noted that claims about the
was of major benefit to the oligarch. scheme appeared similar to corruption allega-
tions made by Kulibayev's late nephew Aisultan
Cheap steel from China Nazarbayev, son of Nazarbayev's eldest daughter,
Under the scheme revealed by the FT, ETK Dariga.
bought cheaply produced steel from China and Aisultan died of a cardiac arrest at the age of
imported it to industrial facilities in Ukraine 29 in London in August, an autopsy by British
and Russia, where pipes were made for the Cen- authorities said.
tral Asia-China pipeline. ETK bought pipes A post script to the newspaper investigation
from the plants but, allegedly, it first sold those suggests the whistleblower’s leak was verified by
same plants the steel to make the pipes at a huge Aisultan Nazarbayev. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 09•December•2020