Bolat Nazarbayev and Kospayev Group: Almaty Glass Director Appeals to President Over Corporate Raid Case

Azim Abdullayev, director of Almaty Glass, has appealed to President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev, requesting that investigators not suspend proceedings related to the corporate raid on his business, Orda.kz reports.

The editorial team obtained a copy of Abdullayev’s letter, in which he outlines the company’s history and his claims against the late Bolat Nazarbayev, brother of Kazakhstan’s first president. The original copy is in the Russian version of this article.

The Claims

According to Abdullayev, since 2016, he had been paying tribute to Nazarbayev, who seized a 50% stake in the glass plant through raiding.

Orda.kz first reported on the case in April 2022, when Abdullayev said that Bolat Nazarbayev had retired and his son Nurbol was managing the share. Nurbol later attempted to transfer control of the plant to another person, sparking protests among workers.

Abdullayev also recalled that Ruslan Shalin — later convicted as a member of the Kospayev organized crime group — visited the factory as Nurbol Nazarbayev’s representative.

In the same year, Bolat Nazarbayev filed a defamation lawsuit against Abdullayev, claiming that the businessman had damaged his honor and dignity on social media. The court ruled in favor of Nazarbayev and fined Abdullayev 500,000 tenge.

In his latest appeal, Abdullayev alleges that Nazarbayev’s associates seized 50% shares not only in Almaty Glass but also in two other firms he founded — Shalkar 17 LLP and Bakhar-A LLP.

He claims that armed units were deployed during the raid on Shalkar 17.

Now, he says, Nazarbayev’s heirs are demanding formal registration of these shares in their name:

On July 4, 2025, I received a letter from a representative of the heirs of Bolat Abishevich Nazarbayev demanding that I take action to amend the constituent documents accordingly and register them with state authorities. Attached were certificates of inheritance under the will, issued on July 31, 2024. The question arises: on what basis? If the procedure demanded by the representative of the heirs is carried out, then as a citizen and the owner of the established business, I will have to forget about returning my share, which was once taken away by Bolat Abishevich Nazarbayev, Abdullayev wrote.

The Cases and Investigations

Abdullayev connects his case to investigations into the Kospayev group. When the gang was prosecuted, materials on their corporate raids were included in criminal case No. 135. A separate proceeding—case No. 11—was opened specifically on the seizure of Abdullayev’s shares in Shalkar 17, Almaty Glass, and Bakhar-A.

The materials of criminal case No. 230000121000011 were separated into a separate proceeding against Bolat Nazarbayev and other persons close to him, Abdullayev noted.

While case No. 135 concluded with convictions for Kospayev’s group, case No. 11 remains unresolved.

Abdullayev says he petitioned the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Financial Monitoring Agency in March 2025, and the request to resume the investigation was granted. Employees of the affected companies confirmed the raids during questioning.

However, he says that in April 2025, the pre-trial investigation was suspended on the grounds that “the persons involved in the crime have not been identified.”

He asks for assistance in bringing those responsible to justice and returning his property.

Meanwhile, Bolat Nazarbayev’s main heir, his son Nurbol, is under investigation by the Asset Recovery Committee.

Original Author: Anastasia Prilepskaya