OCCRP releases investigation into Credit Suisse clients, Among them is Timur Kulibayev
The investigation mentions the family of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. His eldest daughter Dariga had six accounts at Credit Suisse between 2008 and 2021, with a combined maximum balance of $46 million (converted from Swiss francs at current exchange rates). Timur Kulibayev, the husband of Nazarbayev’s middle daughter Dinara and one of Kazakhstan’s richest businessmen, held nine accounts there between 2006 and 2013 with a maximum aggregate balance of more than two billion dollars.
It follows from the leaked data that members of the family of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also had accounts at Credit Suisse. Dinara Kulibayeva, Nazarbayev’s middle daughter, and her husband Timur Kulibayev held accounts at Credit Suisse from 2008 to 2012, during which period their accounts contained the equivalent of 164 billion rubles in Swiss francs, dollars, euros and pounds sterling (at the exchange rate in December 2012), according to the investigation. The eldest daughter of the former president of Kazakhstan, Dariga Nazarbayeva, during the same period owned six accounts in different currencies with a total value equivalent to 5 billion rubles (according to the exchange rate in December 2012), stated in the investigation.
In 2010, Swiss authorities investigated him for money laundering, but dropped the case after Kazakh financial police said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Lawyers for the Kulibayevs engaged with reporters but did not provide a response for publication.
Timur Kulibayev in the Crosshairs of Switzerland
Zurich. A criminal investigation in Switzerland has been opened into allegations of money laundering against Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opened a criminal investigation in September 2010 into allegations of money laundering against Timur Kulibayev, one of his associates, Arvind Tiku, and others.
The investigation focuses on allegations of laundering approximately US$600 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland. The funds are alleged to have been initially obtained from bribes paid to Kulibayev and other proceeds fraudulently obtained by Kulibayev between 2000 and 2005 in relation to the sale of Kazakhstan state-owned oil and gas assets.
At the time of the alleged improprieties, Kulibayev was an officer in Kazakhstan state-owned companies, first as Chairman of the state-owned KazTransOil and then as Deputy Chairman of the state-owned KazMunaiGaz. At the time, KazTransOil controlled the entire infrastructure for transportation of oil and gas products in Kazakhstan, while KazMunaiGaz was the holding company for Kazakshtan’s state-owned oil and gas assets.
Pursuant to Swiss law, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland only opens a criminal investigation where there are sufficient grounds to suspect that a criminal offence has been committed. Acts under investigation were allegedly committed in Zurich, Geneva and Lugano Switzerland.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland is acting pursuant to charges being brought by a group of Kazakhstan citizens opposed to the state-sponsored corruption prevalent in Kazakhstan under the regime of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The parties filing grievances are all domiciled in Kazakhstan and wish to keep their respective names anonymous given the severe risks of retaliation.
Similar claims were previously brought in Kazakhstan before the Office of the General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan which were filed by a third party. The claims were rejected by the Office of the General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan amid speculation that the refusal to consider the charges was politically motivated.
