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Kazakhstani Bank Seeks $21 Million Allegedly Laundered in New York Property

By Colby Adams

The government of Kazakhstan and the nation's second-largest lender have asked a U.S. court to grant them control of $21 million linked to New York real estate they say was purchased with embezzled funds. In a 53-page civil complaint, BTA Bank claims that its former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and Viktor Khrapunov, a former mayor of Almaty, Kazakhstan, used accounts with blacklisted Tanzanian lender FBME Bank and joint investments with U.S. property developer Joseph Chetrit to launder some of the estimated $6 billion they pilfered from 1997 to 2009. Working through Luxembourg shell company Triadou and its director Nicolas Bourg, Ablyazov...

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