Translation of Adam’s post

Last year it became clear in details how the Turkish partners were kicked out of “Kar-Tel” cellular company (basically, they deserved it, since it was a shame to run business such desperately under very favorable conditions, which had been created for them by their “local partners”). Nonetheless, the way they were kicked out was a crooked one, almost similar to the scheme that the “Eurasian trio” of mining oligarchs used when they dealt with the Reuben brothers in late 1990s. The “Eurasians” later reached an amicable agreement with their former partners and settled the dispute, so it did not come to the arbitration – otherwise the situation could turn into disaster, and we would have been still paying out the damages. Alas, the local partners of “Kar-Tel” did not succeed in reaching the agreement with the Uzans clan – the Turks applied to the international arbitration and won it. Meanwhile, the well-known “Almex” company [owned by middle daughter and her husband], the Uzans’ partner in Kazakhstan, kept out from payment of damages, successfully sold “Kar-Tel” to the Russian Vympelcom Company [Beeline brand], while the government was obliged to pay $150 million to the Turks (my source of information). However, the authorities decided to try luck and challenge the decision.

If we trust the “Svoboda Slova” newspaper, probably, the story of the same kind is now happening to another person, and the amounts are far more significant. Briefly, this story of the recent bankruptcy of Bank Astana-Finance (BAF). This credit institution, part of the “Astana Finance” holding (which is also in big trouble with meeting its commitments) had received its license for banking operations just a year ago (interestingly, 1 year earlier it started banking activity in Bashkortostan). From the very beginning, the holding – and BAF – was associated with Mr. Dzhaksybekov, when he was Akim (mayor) of Astana [currently he is the Defence Minister]. The company was established in 1999 on the grounds of the State Fund for Astana Free Economic Area Development, then later somehow it was privatized. By the time of default this “small diligent bank” (as the advertisement said) had $2 billion of both domestic and foreign debt. In principle, now the bank will have to go through bankruptcy and selling of assets procedure, which will make it possible for the bank to pay out at least part of its debts to the creditors. But – according to the newspaper, the bank was allegedly converted to a “dummy”, and all its assets were re-registered to other owners. It is not clear if it’s true or not, but so far there have been no comments from the bank on that.