Home World Aslan Musin’s EU citizenship case: do authorities even bother to check the background of applicants?

Aslan Musin’s EU citizenship case: do authorities even bother to check the background of applicants?

Aslan Musin

Aslan Musin, one of the most elusive ex-officials under the rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev, continues to evade responsibility. The former head of the presidential administration in the years of 2008-2012 stole so much that it was enough for an entire empire of offshore companies, development companies, funds and trusts.

Olzhas Bektenov, the newly appointed head the Anti-Corruption Service, personally reports to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the progress of the case against Aslan Musin and his accomplices. The return of the money that Musin stole from Kazakhstan is one of the priority tasks of the committee. It seems that things have started to move away from a dead point, but not in the best possible direction for the people of Kazakhstan.

Aslan Musin, who began his career as a CPSU party functionary, during the years of his rule in regional committees, region governments and offices close to the body of the National Leader (as Kazakhs call Nursultan Nazarbayev), “earned” a fortune estimated at $ 1.3 billion. What is much more important, he also established connections, both in government structures, and in oligarchic and criminal ones. After his resignation and departure from Kazakhstan, he made a couple of unsuccessful and a couple of successful attempts to legalize his capital and acquire a “reliable” citizenship. Using them as an advantage, Musin not only legalized his capital and distributed it among companies, but also offered his services to other oligarchs “in straitened circumstances.” As a result, the entire empire of Aslan Musin, to one degree or another, is filled with money from the Kazakh, Russian and partly Ukrainian elite of the criminal and corrupt world.

This success, which explains the false un-profitability of many of his enterprises, can become a funeral for Aslan Musin, since it clearly corresponds to the Western European promise to squeeze out and confiscate oligarchic capital from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. A number of by-laws have been adopted to supplement the legislation on combating money laundering. They, according to the English model, depart from the principle of presumption of innocence and rather imply the opposite: all the money of oligarchs and former officials is dirty until proven otherwise. The presence of this threat pushed Aslan Musin to a strange act: to conduct a raider seizure of the Ramazan LLP enterprise.

Aslan Musin took bribes and kickbacks to Europe

Ramazan LLP, opened by Aslan’s brother Orynbasar, brought in a lot of money. Since it operates in Kazakhstan, the organizers do not have to reckon with strict laws. It was opened in the era of maximum power of Aslan Musin in the state apparatus. Nevertheless, this is a real enterprise, with real employees and a considerable turnover. However, in order to use it to prove the origin of the money being withdrawn to the West is not enough. Aslan Musin received the necessary reserve by robbing his brother Orynbasar, forcing him to transfer the share to his nephew, Aslan Musidn’s son, Asylbek Musin. Considering that most of the former official’s companies are registered to his son, this seemed the most rational.
Asylbek Musin went out of the window on the fifteenth floor on the night of Catholic Christmas 2017.

Asylbek Musin fell out of the window on the fifteenth floor on the night of Catholic Christmas 2017. The reasons are yet unknown. Two months before, his common-law wife fell out of the same window of a high-rise building in Riga. It was considered a suicide.

Orynbasar clearly showed why it was necessary to take away his company: to mislead Western supervisory authorities about the availability and sufficiency of Musin’s legal income. Force and psychological pressure measures were applied to Orynbasar to solve this problem.

Aslan Musin’s problem was that neither he nor his wife owned a business in Kazakhstan. Asylbek, now deceased, was the recipient of money and shares of enterprises in all the scams of the official.

The conflict with his brother was formally settled when Orynbasar backed down and said that it “seemed” to him that his business was taken away from him. The essence of his behavior is clear: Aslan Musin knows how to push, and at that time he was practically omnipotent. It was through Ramazan LLP that the criminal capital of the Elbasy’s confidant was legalized.

The proceedings on the long-standing case of the seizure of the share of Ramadan LLP have already been prepared and exhaustive testimony has been taken. Anti-corruption committee can give him a move at any time. The point is certainly not in an attempt to deprive Aslan Musin of an illegally acquired share. The fact is that by proving the illegality of this income, the Anti-Corruption Agency will prove that the citizenship of Bulgaria and Montenegro acquired by Musin is also illegal. As a result, Aslan Musin will part with both passports and numerous commercial enterprises and assets.

At the moment, the parties are solving a technical problem: the Anticorruption Agency is consulting with the West so that the confiscated valuables at least partially get to Kazakhstan, and not be appropriated by Latvia and other countries, which unfortunately fully corresponds to the letter and spirit of the laws. Only after the establishment of an agreement on the division of Aslan Musin’s empire will it be possible to count on the progress of the case. Aslan Musin’s entire money will never be returned.


About the author: Matthew Johnson

Matthew Johnson, a small tech business owner retired and found his passion in journalism.

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