One of the assets is the five-star hotel Rixos Beldibi in Turkish Antalya. Photo: Karim Jamal (CC BY 3.0)
The Center for Corruption and Organized Crime Research (OCCRP) found that the first president of Kazakhstan and the former head of the country's Security Council, Nursultan Nazarbayev, owns banks, hotels, TV channels and other assets worth billions of dollars through a network of charitable foundations. A joint investigation of the center and the Kloop publication was published on the website of the Kazakh publication Vlast, which also participated in the preparation of the material.
The authors of the investigation claim that Nursultan Nazarbayev, while still president, created four private charitable foundations with similar names and non-transparent reporting. The politician, the article says, continues to secretly manage them to this day.
Formally, the foundations are really engaged in charity: they organize events to popularize the Kazakh language and send gifts to children. However, in addition to this, the journalists claim, they manage large assets de facto owned by Nazarbayev.
The investigation says that among such assets are banks, TV channels, hotels, a private jet worth over $100 million, a golf course, hotels, billions of dollars in cash.
“Among the less remarkable objects: warehouses, a pasta factory. For a while, there was even a landscaping company on this list,” add the authors of the text.
For example, the Nazarbayev Fund (formally involved in supporting education) owns a controlling stake in Jusan Technologies. She, in turn, owns online stores in Kazakhstan and Russia, mobile operators Kcell and Jusan Mobile, food distributors, shopping centers in Nur-Sultan and Kostanay, brokerage companies. The company's assets are estimated at $7.8 billion.
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An Airbus ACJ320neo private jet, also called a “flying penthouse,” bought another fund created by the first president, the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation. The aircraft is now in the fleet of Berkut Air, a state-owned airline that reports to the Presidential Administration.
Reporters asked Nazarbayev's spokesman for comment on information about the property of the first president, but he did not answer questions. Three funds also ignored the requests, and the fourth said that the assets do not bring profit to the politician.