Authorities reclaimed more than $684 million of illegally withdrawn assets so far this year in Kazakhstan
According to General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan Berik Assylov, his agency has reclaimed $684.6 million in cash, jewelry and cultural valuables worth $842,625 that were illegally withdrawn from Kazakhstan, as well as 513,000 hectares of land. The official revealed this data in an interview with the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper.
«After the government took control of several facilities, their former owners lost privileged positions in certain economic sectors. It is important to remember that the illegal concentration of economic resources within a narrow circle of individuals is the main obstacle to developing a free economy in our country,» he said.
As Assylov highlighted, Kazakhstan’s court created a new precedent by punishing a person who failed to explain the origins of his $11.5 million fortune and demanded that this illegally obtained wealth be given to the government. The general prosecutor refused to reveal the person’s identity, noting that recovered assets are used to support the social and economic development of Kazakhstan.
For instance, when the government obtained control of a transport and logistical center in the Zhetysu region, it improved the quality of services for entrepreneurs on the Kazakhstan-China border, boosting the center’s capacity sixfold. Moreover, authorities managed to decrease shortages of grazing fields by transferring reclaimed grassland to farmers in the Almaty, Akmola and Turkestan regions.
«In addition, the government has recently recovered hotels, office buildings, restaurants, business centers and land parcels in exclusive residential districts of big cities, marketplaces, railway infrastructure, large-ticket jewelry and other properties. There is a lot of further work ahead of us,» Assylov said.
Currently, the Asset Recovery Committee is scrutinizing about 100 facilities of personal and real property in Kazakhstan and abroad, reviewing the origins of securities worth millions of dollars along with more than 200,000 banking transactions and contracts on dozens of big fields throughout the country. Furthermore, the General Prosecutor’s Office is examining the legality of the origins of assets linked to specific enterprises and properties.
Many international organizations have assisted Kazakhstani prosecutors in finding and recovering illegal assets. For example, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan has reached a preliminary arrangement with the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe to prepare a joint action plan. The OSCE is also assisting Kazakhstan in improving its legal framework with the help of international experts. The two sides are currently discussing potential collaboration in a complex project related to asset recovery.
«We have become a member of the GlobE Network, a global community of practitioners dedicated to countering corruption. We have connected to Threema, the secure business messenger, for better exchange of requests and information. In February, we signed a contract with Presight, part of the G-42 corporation, to launch an analytical platform to track asset withdrawals,» Assylov elaborated.
All in all, the country managed to recover more than $2.1 billion; $4.6 million of this amount was used for flood recovery, the prime minister’s press service reported.
In the fall of 2023, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev authorized the creation of a new public agency – the Asset Recovery Committee under the General Prosecutor’s Office with Nurdaulet Suindikov as its head. As the presidential administration noted, the recovery mechanisms would be applied to subjects linked with big oligopoly groups closely tied to well-connected and powerful individuals. The law is aimed at people who hold top positions in the state apparatus, state-run entities, entities of the quasi-state sector and affiliated individuals. The law might also be applied to people with $94 million in assets.
Among those who returned illegally obtained assets to the government are Kairat Satybaldy, nephew of Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Ex-Culture and Sports Minister Arystanbek Mukhamediuly and figures involved in the Operator ROP legal case.
