NEF Qazaqstan Founder Tarık Volkan Oskay Placed on Wanted List

Tarık Volkan Oskay, founder and head of NEF Qazaqstan, has been placed on Kazakhstan’s wanted list, Orda.kz reports.

The Turkish businessman is known for his business ties with oligarch Kairat Boranbayev. His company, NEF Qazaqstan, was previously at the center of a high-profile default on the Astana International Exchange (AIX).

According to the national legal statistics portal, the wanted notice for Oskay was officially registered in Almaty on April 18.

Originally from Türkiye, Oskay co-owned Royal Comfort Astana with Kairat Boranbayev.

The company previously controlled the Comfort Hotel Astana complex, which was later transferred to the state as part of Kazakhstan’s efforts to reclaim assets deemed illegally acquired. Oskay was also affiliated with Almaly Assets Management, a firm in which Boranbayev is listed as a founder.

Oskay gained wider attention after the 2023 financial troubles of NEF Qazaqstan. Initially promoted as a subsidiary of a major Turkish construction group, the company had announced plans to build the Green Center residential complex in Almaty using investor funds.

However, it later defaulted on 20% guaranteed bonds issued on AIX in 2022, owing investors more than 4 billion tenge.

In 2024, a court ruled in favor of the investors, ordering NEF Qazaqstan to pay the owed amounts. The company complied only partially. At the time of the ruling, the unpaid principal totaled approximately 1.5 billion tenge, with additional penalties and legal fees adding over 360 million tenge.

Orda.kz contacted the Almaty Police Department for further clarification. 

As the Almaty police informed Orda, a case was initiated in the Bostandyk district under Article 1, “Fraud.”

The court has issued a pre-trial detention order in absentia. We are currently working to establish his whereabouts, the police department reported.

The Comfort Hotel Astana, formerly co-owned by Boranbayev and Oskay, was eventually transferred to Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLP, the Kazakh affiliate of the U.S.-based Invesco PowerShares, following a third attempt to find a new owner.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny