How the money was hidden in Switzerland - 2
Top of the "bucksberg": At first there were too many accounts and it was very hard to control them

The U. S. Department of Justice and Swiss Prosecutor's Office jointly fight against corruption in Kazakhstan. It seems that their coordinated efforts were more effective than the years-long efforts of the President Nazarbaev and his force ministers. The secret accounts, through which 115 millions USD passed, were recently disclosed. Certainly this is just a top of the "bucksberg", i.e. accounts controlled just by one of Nazarbaev's agents, his American adviser James Giffen. There were several agents of that kind and tens and hundreds of accounts.

The history of Kazakhstan accounts in foreign banks had at least three stages. On the first stage (1990-1993) agents of Nazarbaev and his Family Treasurer Syzdyk Abishev opened hundreds of accounts in banks of Switzerland, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Germany, United Kingdom.

The mechanism of currency transfers was approximately the same. An off-shore company was purchased in foreign bank. Sometimes it was the company with a director, sometimes without any director, some times it was an old company with its own credit history and balance on the account. The company could be purchased by a physical person, legal entity or a foundation. The document on beneficiary was also signed right in the bank. Beneficiary was the person subject to receiving all the company income and all the money in case of the company sale.

President Nazarbaev was not listed in any official sales documents. But his name was mentioned in the will document. The company purchaser and the account holder indicated that if something happens to him/her all money go to the Republic of Kazakhstan in the person of its President. Warranties to the real holder of financial resources were provided this way. None even tried to "fling the father". The talk with a tricker of that kind would be very short.

Money came to those accounts from different sources. The major sources were money received from export of Kazakhstan raw materials (exporters assigned by the Minister of External Economic Connections and state export companies transferred certain amounts of money) and foreign credits. For this particular reason it was very hard for Kazakhstan law machinery to find someone responsible for disappeared credits of 2 billion USD.

Several known persons had their own specialization. Money from oil export going to foreign accounts were controlled by Nurlan Balgimbaev and James Giffen. Bulat Utemuratov (In present – Nazarbaev's adviser) controlled financial streams from Kazakhstan Trade Houses abroad. Syzdyk Abishev supervised the whole system.

The system was in general ineffective because of its diversity and big sizes. It was hard to manage such a big amount of companies and accounts for a limited number of involved individuals. It was hard to control whether formal account holders take some money from those accounts and use them for their own purposes or not and if yes – is this payment for their services just enough and whether Father's interests are offended or not.

The second stage, the epoch of foreign capitals concentration started only in 1994. At that time Kazakhstan has finally left the ruble zone, introduced tenge and acquired full economic sovereignty and financial independence from Moscow. Kazakhstan leaders found out that they will not have to make reports about their blusterous financial activities in the first years of independence. It was the time to bring financial business abroad into order. Restless Syzdyk Abishev took care of that. The total amount of banking accounts was reduced up to some tens and the number of responsible individuals was extremely limited.

Assignment of new Prime-Minister A. Kazhegeldin in Fall 1994 did not stagger Abishev's positions. He formally took the position of the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers Office. It was good to the President. On this position Abishev could not just take care of his basic business as the Treasurer, but also "observe" Kazhegeldin. But the Premier himself was not a mishit himself. Feeling that the budget misses millions of USD from export Kazhegeldin directed Russian media towards Abishev. In early 1995 the paper "Izvestia" published the material entitled "Oman and Deceive". This material openly informed that Abishev is corrupted by the Dutch businessman John Doisse, who's reputation is really scandal. No rebuttals followed that publication.

Nazarbaev has had to move his Financial Coordinator to less noticeable position. Within a month Abishev was sent to Frankfurt-am-Main as the Consul General. On this position he did not waste time anyway because the Family had accounts in German banks. In late 1995 when the resonance after the scandal publication was over Nazarbaev returned Abishev to Almaty and assigned him as the General Manager of his Administration. This was the traditional staff policy of Nazarbaev. When scandals touched his agents he took them out of public attention and returned back afterwards.

Later he did the same thing with his perennial assistant Nurtaai Abykaev, who has been involved into the scandal with military aircrafts sale to North Korea. Abykaev was resigned from the position and after several months assigned as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. This position was extremely convenient for often trips abroad, the ones with financial mission as well.

Return of Abishev was not in last turn connected with the strengthening of Kazhegeldin's positions, who put too much questions and controlled the whole privatization process. He put questions on disappeared credits, which Kazakhstan has had to return with big penalties in 1994-1995. The default was held on several credits. Questions on privatized enterprises debts were also put. The deal was of hundreds millions of USD. Where did currency incomes from metallurgical giants production export go? This question was left without an answer.

Besides that the Government economists analyzed statistical data – financial reports of industrial enterprises and statistics of transportations. Those data did not correspond to each other. It was found out that metallurgical companies export much more than indicate in their reports and mark their incomes down. In 1997 this resulted a big scandal with British Company "Trans World Group", co-owner of metallurgical enterprises. Kazakhstan authorities drove the Company out of the projects. But the practice of data falsification and "settlement" of a part of currency resources abroad remained. But since then it was done exclusively in favor of the Family.

The year of 1997 was hard. In summer a strange story occurred with Syzdyk Abishev. He unexpectedly lost speech but it looked like he saved his memory. The official version was that he had a micro insult. Individuals, who knew Abishev well enough claimed that he had an alpha plus health and his illness was provoked from outside. Abishev was treated in Turkey and Moscow for a long time. Everywhere he was dependently secured. Visits of his relatives and friends were strictly limited or even prohibited.

In summer 1998 Syzdyk Zhumataevich passed away. Hearings that all secrets of numerous accounts abroad were gone together with Abishev started circulating almost at the same time. As was found out later those hearings were inspired by agreement and even by personal initiative of Nursultan Nazarbaev. But in reality he had all information on accounts handy and the pass away of the major Treasurer required enormous organizational and financial work on their rearrangement.

Nurtai Abykaev and Bulat Utemuratov became responsible for this hot point. The second individual worked as Kazakhstan Ambassador in Switzerland but had the same far-away relation to diplomacy as well as to economy. They traveled through Western Europe for several months. They visited Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, United Kingdom… All actives were taken stock, some of them were rewritten to new holders.

Related links:

https://neweurasia.info/archive/2000/analyse_en/07_05_stole1_eng.htm