Fugitive Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov has been dealt a serious blow in a massive fraud case brought against him in London’s High Court by Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank: Ablyazov has been debarred from fighting BTA’s accusations that he pilfered $6 billion, reports The Lawyer.
Barring a successful appeal, the November 6 ruling sounds the death knell for Ablyazov’s hopes of clearing his name. His reputation also took a hit from the judge’s condemnation of Ablyazov’s attitude to the court: “It is difficult to imagine a party to commercial litigation who has acted with more cynicism, opportunism and deviousness towards court orders than Mr. Ablyazov.”
Ablyazov left Kazakhstan for London in 2009 after Kazakh authorities forcibly nationalized BTA Bank, which he headed and owned through an undeclared stake.
BTA sued Ablyazov for embezzlement in London. The oligarch went on the run after the High Court in February handed him a 22-month prison sentence for contempt of court for concealing assets. His whereabouts are unknown.
If Ablyazov loses his planned appeal, BTA can move to seize his assets, which – according to the British press – include a $29-million nine-bedroom mansion on The Bishop’s Avenue, a London street so exclusive it is dubbed Billionaires’ Row.
Grigoriy Marchenko, chief of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, has emerged as a surprise contender for the hot seat at the International Monetary Fund. The previous head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, stepped down this week amid allegations he attacked a hotel maid in New York.
The CIS Heads of Government Council put Marchenko's candidacy forward at their summit in Minsk on May 19 as the preferred candidate on behalf of the post-Soviet Union bloc. He received further endorsement from Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Karim Masimov at the EBRD's annual gathering in Astana on May 20.
Marchenko, 52, is a career banker who has done time inside both state and private banks. At the helm of the Kazakhstan's central bank since January 2009, and from 1999 to 2004, CIS bank chiefs see him as a safe pair of hands. Since resuming that position, he has carefully steered the Kazakh economy through the global financial crisis and overseen a series of controversial bank bailouts.
Given the basket-case economies of the other CIS member states, Marchenko looks like a rational choice. Though by tradition the IMF's top job is reserved for a European -- with the World Bank top slot reserved for Americans -- there have been some calls to break this European stranglehold. A candidate from Kazakhstan, which straddles both Europe and Asia, could provide a suitable compromise.
