Main decisions in Ablyazov’s case in London made by Tony Blair's eldest brother

Main decisions in Ablyazov’s case in London were made by Blair's eldest brother, reported the Respublika.

“Judge William Blair is Tony Blair's eldest brother. So it was Tony Blair's eldest brother who sanctioned to arrest my assets and my documents. The bank accused me that I hid assets for tens of millions of pounds. At the end of 2011 there were court hearings on these charges, and in February, 2012 the judge Tiere sentenced me to 22 months of imprisonment, making a statement that I showed disrespect to court because I didn't disclose all of my the assets”, - the ex-head of the board of directors of BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov said in the interview to the newspaper published on Friday.

According to him, all main disputes that occurred in the court after the arrest of the assets, were connected namely with this warrant for arrest of the assets, and not with the specific claims of BTA Bank against him.

“The main point of those disputes is whether I fulfilled the warrant for arrest, whether I disclosed the assets correctly, and if the disclosure was full”, - M. Ablyazov reported.

Ablyazov said that Judge Blair made a decision on freezing the assets secretly from him 2009.

“Before BTA filed a claim, in August 2009, as per BTA petition the judge Blair made a decision on freezing all of my assets. This was done secretly from me, though at that time I stayed in London. He made a decision to arrest all my assets and, in actual fact, to arrest my passport. Lawyers called this decision unprecedented”, - he said.

According to Ablyazov, his documents at that moment were under the review of the Home Office (the analog of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain) for the subject of granting him a political asylum.

To recall, at the beginning of 2009, after the government entering into a share capital of BTA Bank and the transition of the bank under the control of the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna, the RoK Prosecutor General's Office initiated criminal case against Ablyazov on suspicion in large fraud and withdrawal of bank’s funds through the false companies. The banker immediately fled from Kazakhstan to Great Britain, having received there a shelter and calling charges against him as politically motivated.

BTA estimates the total amount of funds illegally appropriated by Ablyazov at about $5 bn. According to experts, the former head of the bank together with his companions withdrew from Kazakhstan through BTA, through offshore companies and poor credits up to $10 bn.

In December, 2010 the British appeal court confirmed the decision of High Court about the need for introduction of external management (receivership) over Ablyazov's assets totaling about $5 bn, since he didn't execute the warrant issued in 2009 about freezing of assets.

In February, 2012 the High Court of London as per BTA bank claim sentenced Ablyazov to 22 months of imprisonment, having found him guilty of disrespect to the court that was expressed in perjury. But the enforcement of this sentence was not possible, since the whereabouts of the banker is unknown. According to some information, the condemned in absentia could have secretly fled to France, using the documents which he previously hid from the court.

At the same time in May of the current year the Addleshaw Goddard lawyer’s office, representing the interests of Ablyazov in London High Court was given the right not to disclose the location of its client.

At the end of October Ablyazov's British lawyers submitted the application with the request to remove the judge Nigel Teare from the process “BTA Bank against Mukhtar Ablyazov” and asked to postpone the start of court hearings, as there is no official announcement of the result of Ablyazov's appeal petition connected with disrespect to court. The judge Teare refused neither to withdraw himself from the process, nor to postpone the hearings.

Another criminal case has been initiated in Russia against Ablyazov, as well as his arrest in absentia. In total there are 9 judicial claims initiated against Ablyazov.

WKT citing KazTAG