Kazakhgate under way

According to reliable sources in Astana, Nursultan Nazarbayev has set up a crisis group on Kazakhgate. Bulat Utemuratov, an old and trusted adviser to Nazarbayev, who has started his career as a public catering man in Almaty to become an ambassador to Switzerland and UN international organizations, has headed the group. The group's task is to develop a strategy that will allow to shift the blame from Kazakh president and his family members onto someone else.

The U.S. has requested Swiss authorities to seize dozens of bank accounts controlled by Nazarbayev and his family members as part of an international investigation. Owners of the seized multimillion accounts include former prime minister Nurlan Balgimbayev, who is also involved in numerous shady Kazakh oil deals, dumping oil sales and illegal deals with rogue states. On June 6, a Kazakhgate-related trial is to begin in Alexandria, the capital of Virginia. For this and further trials, Mr. Nazarbayev and his lawyers will have to present their own version for the origin of the accounts and the moneys in question.

According to the sources, the Utemuratov group's basic recommendation is to admit the fact of the U.S. and Swiss investigations and the existence of bank accounts in the name of Nursultan Nazarbayev and his daughter Dinara in Geneva's Credit Agricole Indosuez. Simultaneously, the president will have to categorically state that those accounts were opened without his or his relatives' permission. Nursultan Nazarbayev has been recommended to launch a public investigation in Kazakhstan, as a result of which the Kazakhgate would be presented as a criminal scheme by two persons, namely former prime minister Nurlan Balgimbayev and old adviser to Kazakh president James Giffen.

The version, worked out in association with U.S. lawyers hired to defend Mr. Nazarbayev in the forthcoming trial, suggests that Mr. Balgimbayev as a Kazakh oil minister, Kazakhoil company president and prime minister, and James Giffen forced western companies to transfer hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars due to Kazakhstan as bonuses and royalties, to private accounts. In doing so, the two schemers said they followed the president's orders. To convince western companies that the bribes were to go to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr. Balgimbayev and Mr. Giffen opened in Switzerland banks accounts in his name and the names of his relatives, and transferred moneys to them.

This plan is believed to be the reason behind a sudden and ambiguous statement made by prime minister Tasmagambetov at Kazakh parliament this April. The head of government said that the accounts in the name of Mr. Nazarbayev must have been opened behind his back. At that time, observers failed to see the true meaning of that statement and attributed it to a closed mind and the lack of information of the 'Nazarbayev's product' as Mr. Tasmagambetov proudly calls himself. It's obvious today that the statement was meant as a public opinion probe made on Mr. Utemuratov's request.

Mr. Balgimbayev was fired from the post of the Kazakhoil president without any of the traditional compensations from President Nazarbayev. All the later statements by the former prime minister who said that the president offered him some high-level positions but he chose to engage in business have been viewed with suspicion from the very beginning. The events that followed just added weight to the suspicions that Mr. Nazarbayev was going to victimize his old associate to western justice and the international public opinion in order to save his own reputation and, probably, his freedom.

Since his resignation as the Kazakhoil president, Nurlan Balgimbayev has been living in his house in the Bolshoy Almatinsky gorge. Almost everyone in the southern capital knows that he is under surveillance of presidential special services, his phone is being tapped, and his contacts are being recorded. Well-informed sources say the president fears that Mr. Balgimbayev, who has extensive connections in Western Kazakhstan, may attempt to consolidate local elite to protect him. The community in the ex-premier's native land openly complains that the central authorities have been using Kazakh oil and gas revenues uncontrollably. Until now, there have been no influential figure with sufficient financial resources to head a movement for Western Kazakhstan's autonomy or even complete independence.

James Giffen, seen as the president Nazarbayev mastermind, who have been a middleman in almost every important investment deal or a high-level staffing issue, would soon go on trial in New York on charges of bribing foreign state officials which is an criminal offense under U.S. laws. His defense tactics is based on the idea that he did not act independently, but fulfilled orders from high-level Kazakh officials as a hired manager or specialist. All his transfers into Swiss bank accounts were allegedly made in line of duty and he has not benefited from them.

Mr. Balgimbayev have denied any involvement in the Kazakhgate scandal so far. He has also denied having any foreign bank accounts and, like Nazarbayev, has kept saying that some mysterious opponents of oil production in the Caspian are responsible for current situation. In the case Mr. Utemuratov manages to persuade Mr. Giffen to testify that he was instructed solely by Mr. Balgimbayev, the latter will be taken into custody and brought to trial behind closed doors. Should Mr. Giffen keeps insisting that Nursultan Nazarbayev has been his patron and chief, Mr. Balgimbayev would be offered to voluntarily admit to his criminal conspiracy with Mr. Giffen and publicly deny the charges against the Kazakh president.

The perspective trial of Mr. Balgimbayev allows to look from a different angle at the charges brought against Mukhtar Ablyazov, a minister in the Balgimbayev government. Under a scenario devised by the Utemuratov's crisis group, the trial of Mr. Ablyazov should become an overture to the trial of Mr. Balgimbayev. First accusations against Mr. Balgimbayev are to be voiced at this first trial, which will prepare public opinion for the actions to follow.

EURASIA-Internet, June 5, 2002