Kazakhstan reclaims $2.1 billion in assets obtained illegally

The amount of illegally obtained assets has exceeded $2 billion / Photo: Shutterstock

According to the press service of Kazakhstan’s cabinet, the government has summarized the annual results of work within the national program aimed at reclaiming assets illegally obtained or withdrawn from the country.

How much money has the government returned? As the country’s cabinet reported, it managed to reclaim about $2.1 billion in assets. These efforts have been undertaken in order to meet election promises President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made during the presidential campaign last year.

What figures did the government announce previously? On November 7, the Anti-Corruption Agency said that over the first ten months of this year, authorities reclaimed $1.8 billion in cash and assets. This means that over the past two weeks, the government managed to reclaim an additional $310 million.

At the time, the agency said that $80 million was reclaimed from Austria, $253 million from Liechtenstein, $13.6 million from the UAE and $550,106 from Turkey.

This year, Kazakhstan established a new state agency under the General Prosecutor’s Office whose main task is searching for assets illegally withdrawn from the country and reclaiming them. Interestingly, there is another asset-reclaiming commission under the prime minister of Kazakhstan. The two agencies are supposed to interact with each other.

The committee has a list of individuals and entities that might possess illegal assets, although it’s not allowed to disclose the names of people on the list. The agency’s list includes those who control $100 million or more worth of assets whose origin isn’t clear. The committee has to prove the illegal origin of assets within a year. Otherwise, those who control these assets will be removed from the list automatically.

There are two options for asset reclaiming: voluntarily and by court order.

All reclaimed assets must be transferred to a special state fund that is expected to use this money for funding different social and economic projects.

In May, General Prosecutor Berik Assylov said that the country reclaimed more than $1.6 billion including $574 million from foreign jurisdiction. Part of these assets were controlled by Kairat Satybaldy, nephew of Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev, according to the agency, although it didn’t provide any details.