The Kazakh authorities are negotiating a billion-dollar agreement with the son-in-law of the first president, Timur Kulibayev
The son-in-law of the former president of Kazakhstan, Timur Kulibayev, is discussing with the state the payment of about $1 billion as part of a government investigation into the fortune acquired under the country’s first president.
This information is provided by Exclusive.kz with reference to Bloomberg.
According to the sources of the publication, the payment will not include an admission of guilt.
It can be assumed that if the parties reach an agreement, all potential questions about the legality of the property acquired by Nazarbayev’s son-in-law will be resolved by the Kazakh law enforcement agencies.
Timur Kulibayev’s representative, according to a Bloomberg article, declined to comment directly on the matter, “as it affects state affairs,” but said it was “categorically incorrect to call any contributions asset recovery.”
The General Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan, which is responsible for negotiations with the oligarchs, also declined to comment on this story, citing the confidentiality of the process.
The author of the article recalls that in 2023, the government passed a law according to which it will check any fortune of $ 100 million or more accumulated by persons with ties to the state since Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. This has dissuaded many of the country’s richest people from investing domestically, fearing that their assets could be targeted.
The article also notes that Timur Kulibayev has already paid $230 million to the state, which will be counted towards his total amount if an agreement is reached.
“This was part of a settlement that the government concluded last year in a dispute waged by the U.S.-based company Argentem Creek Partners against Kazakhstan over oil and gas assets,” sources told Bloomberg.