ASTANA, January 29 (RAPSI) – Property of the fugitive ex-CEO of BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov, may be seized in Kazakhstan, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Iogan Merkel told the press on Wednesday.
Ablyazov was detained on July 31 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of Ablyazov, who fled to the UK after the Kazakh government acquired a stake in defaulted BTA in 2009 and the bank came under the control of its sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.
But Kazakhstan and France do not have an extradition treaty. Ablyazov, 50, is accused of embezzling billions of dollars from BTA. On January 9, the court of Aix-en-Provence ruled to extradite Ablyazov to Russia or Ukraine, with the priority given to the Russian side.
Merkel on Wednesday introduced a draft of the new Criminal Code of Kazakhstan stipulating the seizure of wanted persons' illegal property. This measure will apply to individuals who left Kazakhstan and can't be extradited for a score of objective reasons.
Ablyazov, the bank's former chairman, fled to Britain and was granted political asylum in 2011. He left the country a year later when a London High Court judge sentenced him to 22 months in prison for contempt of court.
BTA has filed 11 law suits in London accusing its former top management of embezzling $6 billion. Ablyazov claims the charges against him are politically motivated.
The High Court ordered Ablyazov to pay $400 million in damages to BTA in November after ruling that the bank had been defrauded of $300 million in a case relating to a portfolio of AAA-rated securities.
