Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·May, 26, 2004

U.S. SAYS NAZARBAYEV TOOK BRIBES -- Federal prosecutors in the Kazakhgate scandal have publicly identified for the first time Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev as the mysterious "KO-2" named in the indictments against his American financial advisor who is awaiting trial for corruption, tax evasion and money laundering. Also named was former Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev, previously known only as "KO-1" in court papers, Bloomberg News Service reports. The pair accepted more than $78 million in bribes from an American oil consultant, according to documents filed in federal court by prosecutors. The consultant, James Giffen, was a close confidant of Nazarbayev and some reports indicate he continues to advise the Kazakh leader. This is the first time the two alleged bribe recipients have been officially named. Federal prosecutors say Giffen, in brokering a deal with Mobil Oil Corp, transferred $20 million to an account belonging to Balgimbaev and another owed by a Liechtenstein front set up "for the benefit of KO-2 (Nazarbayev) and his family." In all, Giffen, as Nazarbayev's counselor and intermediary with several Western oil companies, is accused of paying the two men more than $78 million in bribes to facilitate six oil transactions in the mid-1990s, Bloomberg reports. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1000008...26uoX_I&refer=top_world_news

'I'M A SECRET AGENT, NOT A CROOK' -- James Giffen, the financial advisor to President Nazarbayev, is trying a new defense in his corruption case: he was working with the CIA. In a recent court filing, he said that he was in close contacts with U.S. intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House, and may argue at trial that they approved the payments, according to Bloomberg News Service. Giffen's lawyers contend, "He was their eye and ears there." Another line of defense his lawyers may try is to say he could not have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because he thought he was acting as a government agent. In a related defense, President Nazarbayev has reportedly gone personally to President Bush and other top U.S. officials to try to get the investigation of him and his close associates, including family members, quashed. The new federal filing in the Giffen case identifying Nazarbayev by name as a bribe recipient is the first public sign that his high level pleas failed and that federal prosecutors aren't buying Giffen's secret agent defense, either. Kazakh government officials have tried to quash the investigation by asserting that it violated the country's sovereign prerogatives, but prosecutors rejected that as well. They told the court that the Kazakh government's willingness to come to Gifffen's aid didn't reflect his innocence but "the power within the Kazakh government" of those he bribed. Another Nazarbayev tactic is to remind the American administration that the oil-rich former Soviet republic plays such an “important role” for the United States in Central Asia that the case should be dropped. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1000008...26uoX_I&refer=top_world_news

IS THERE NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES? -- Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed the Kazakhgate case as "insinuation, provocation and manipulation" and told a Russian newspaper that his former confidante, James Giffen, who was has been charged in federal court with bribing the Kazakh dictator, was just a government advisor, not a presidential aide, reports BBC. However, the BBC quotes a Russian newspaper, Nazarbayev's own government filed documents with the court, personally signed by Nazarbayev, calling Giffen a presidential advisor. Kazakhgate may be widely reported around the world, but not in Kazakhstan where the dirty deals took place, reports the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostey.In fact, one prominent journalist who wrote about reports published abroad was beaten up and jailed as a result. http://news.bbc.co.uk/, http://www.vremya.ru/

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