ASTANA. Aug 7 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - Kazakhstan's financial police have filed new fraud charges against former head of Kazakhstan-based BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov, said the spokesman of the State Agency for Fighting Economic and Corruption Crimes Murat Zhumanbay.
"All additional charges stem from the BTA Bank fraud case. Eight new charges have bee filed against Ablyazov and other former senior mangers for siphoning off $317 million funds through fraudulent offshore loans," Zhumanbay told a briefing in Astana.
As reported, Mukhtar Ablyazov was arrested on July 31, 2013 in southern France near Cannes by the French special forces. According to the French Foreign Ministry, he was arrested on the basis of an international order issued by a court in Kyiv, Ukraine. The banker may be extradited to Ukraine and Russia in case the court issues a relevant decision.
The Kyiv police department said that the Ukrainian investigators put Mukhtar Ablyazov on wanted list in 2010 on embezzlement and fraud charges.
Kazakhstan accuses Ablyazov of financial crimes worth a total of over $6 billion. In February 2012, Ablyazov was found guilty of contempt of court in the UK because he failed to disclose the full extent of his assets. The court sentenced him to 22 months in prison. However, Ablyazov fled the UK right after the court ruling was issued and had been in hiding before he was arrested in France this year.
According to Kazakhstan Prosecutor General's Office, Mukhtar Ablyazov and his accomplices are under "criminal investigation by the law enforcement agencies of Cyprus, Hungary and Latvia and the authorized bodies in Ireland and Finland are checking on companies affiliated with Ablyazov".