Kazakhstan continues to auction off landed property and luxury goods taken from oligarchs of the Nazarbayev clan who did so well for so long under discredited former president Nursultan Nazarbayev – but the attempts of the current Tokayev administration to claw back assets deemed stolen or unfairly obtained during the three-decade-long Elbasy, or Leader of the Nation, era have met with very mixed results.

For sale: A 2,800 square-metre luxury mansion located in the capital Astana. Price: Kazakhstani tenge (KZT) 1.8bn ($3.5mn).

On February 25, the auction of this property ultimately proved unsuccessful. Perhaps it was the notoriety of the previous owner that put off potential buyers. Who would want to buy the former home of Karim Massimov, former head of the National Security Committee (KNB), who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for masterminding the “Bloody January” unrest that shook Kazakhstan at the beginning of 2022, leaving at least 200 dead and thousands injured?

The mansion of Massimov, who served as right-hand man to Nazarbayev, was not the first property that belonged to a member of the ex-president's network to be earmarked for a state auction. Recently, the bling-bling 18-storey ‘Duman’ hotel in Astana, owned by Nazarbayev's eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva, was put up for sale. Given a starting price of KZT 14bn ($27.5mn), the asset is due to go on the sales block in June.

In Ushkonyr valley, Nazarbayev's native region in the south of the country, there are, meanwhile, thousands of state-seized hectares of private property that belonged to the former president's brother, Bolat Nazarbayev, which have been gradually put on the market since December.

Images and big-headline values of such properties being auctioned off have crowded the pages of state media, all too ready to expose the indecent enrichment of people linked to Nazarbayev in the days of what the authorities refer to as “Old Kazakhstan”. Also apparently taken from oligarchs and going up for auction are luxurious cars and jewellery adorned with precious stones – although the identities of the former owners have not been divulged in these cases. 

The seizing of the wealth and property, identified both at home and abroad, is performed by the state’s Restituted Assets Management Company, set up in September 2023 in line with a new law “On the Restitution to the State of Illegally Acquired Assets”.

Under the supervision of a commission, chaired by the attorney general, sums of money obtained, either directly or from resales of seized assets, have been transferred to a special fund, which works under the finance ministry. Its brief is to allocate funds to social projects such as school or hospital construction initiatives. The asset-holding company is sitting on KZT 300bn (€570mn).

President Tokayev in the days after the January 2022 unrest talked about the need to “de-oligarchise” the economy. The mass demonstrations were motivated by a general feeling of discontent with the prevailing autocratic and corrupt establishment. After the protests were violently crushed by security forces, an internal power struggle continued between the Nazarbayev clan and Tokayev and his backers.

Exact details of how the unrest came about and grew remain rather unclear. There has been nothing amounting to an independent investigation. Nevertheless, Tokayev used the black episode as a reason to purge many state officials who were still under the influence of his predecessor.

The touting of the narrative of “New Kazakhstan”, supposedly a fairer and more democratic country, put the fight to retrieve illegally acquired assets at the forefront of policy. Cautiously controlled and organised by the executive, the asset recovery is staged as meeting a thirst for social justice, but its patchy results are a problem for officials selling that line.

The Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Antikor) claims to have recovered more than €2.3bn in stolen assets since 2022 – but that’s a derisory sum, say observers, who point out that Nazarbayev's personal fortune alone exceeds $8bn.

“The problem is that we can't see where this money is going, or really how much has actually been returned,” says Murat Danyar, head of Transparency International in Kazakhstan. “We are aware of certain sums in some headlines, but that's where it stops. There is absolutely no transparency in the recovery of illegal assets.”

Not public

The register of all people under investigation for suspect assets is not open to the public. Some names appear in the media, but that is usually because they are linked to the Nazarbayev clan, and thus, for the observer, can neatly “divide power between the ‘old’ and the ‘new ’”, says an independent financial lawyer.  

The very first steps towards this ‘emotional’ justice were sanctions imposed on Nazarbayev family members. In 2022, a company linked to Aliya Nazarbayeva, the former president's youngest daughter, was investigated for misappropriation of public funds, while assets controlled by her uncle Bolat Nazarbayev were scrutinised by financial investigators.

Kairat Satybaldy, Nursultan Nazarbayev’s nephew, was sentenced to a prison term for embezzlement from state telecom and railway companies, and is said to have paid the state €1.5bn for his freedom. Kairat Boranbayev, sentenced to six years in prison in 2022 for embezzling money from QazaqGaz, returned the equivalent of €200mn, as well as control of many companies, to the state.

However, Boranbayev is still at the helm of several groups and his reputation has even been rehabilitated since he financed a highly prized contemporary art centre in Almaty.

The Nazarbayev Fund, an endowment fund for Nazarbayev University and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, remains protected by a special law that gives it absolute autonomy and prohibits state intervention in its activities.

Timur Kulibayev, a son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, remains co-owner of the country's largest bank, Halyk Bank, and a major player in the energy sector. 

“Of course, the media are talking about the seizure of Bolat Nazarbayev's land or Massimov's mansion... But that doesn't mean anything!” says Orazaly Erzhanov, a former politician and head of Elge Qairatu foundation. It campaigns for effective asset recovery and has offered its services to asset recovery committees on several occasions.

“What really counts is Nazarbayev himself, his daughters and the energy companies... All the oligarchs in these sectors have not moved. Why? Because the fear of new demonstrations has disappeared. There is once again a feeling of impunity among the economic elites.”

Tokayev's rhetoric over the unjustness of the former regime has softened, and he is seen as more inclined to make deals with the Nazarbayev-linked wealthy. “It's all very vague and very secret, but that's why all of them are still involved in the economy,” says Orazaly Erzhanov.

Bloomberg reported in February that 58-year-old Kulibayev, said to be worth around $3.5bn, is in talks to pay around $1bn to the state as part of the government investigation into wealth accumulated under the Nazarbayev presidency.

Should an agreement be reached, Kulibayev, would provide a mix of payments and investments, two people familiar with the negotiations were cited as saying, adding that the payout would not include any admission of fault.

A representative for Kulibayev declined to comment to the news service directly on the matter as it involved government affairs, but said “it is categorically incorrect to refer to any contributions as asset recovery.” Over the years, Kulibayev has significantly contributed to Kazakhstan’s economic and social development, and “continues to engage with the government to establish how best to accelerate this progress in the coming years,” the representative added.