QazaqGaz's Shady Deals: How One Confiscated Asset Was Linked to Kairat Sharipbayev

The company managing returned assets recently reported successfully selling yet another confiscated property.

The Almaty production base was auctioned off for 1.6 billion tenge. Orda.kz has investigated the matter.

As follows from E-Qazyna and E-auction, the production base is at 64 Ratushnogo Street.

The building has an area of ​​4431.5 sq. m, a land plot of 3.4 hectares, a guarded territory, spacious warehouses, and offices. 

A chain of shell companies allowed us to establish a connection with oligarch Kairat Sharipbayev. 

Sharipbayev is the former head of the national company QazaqGaz and is called Dariga Nazarbayeva's second husband.

From Intergaz to Private Owners

The production base was already put up for sale in 2020.

QazaqGaz's subsidiary, Intergaz Central Asia JSC, tried to sell the property for 597,841,882 tenge, almost three times less than the current price. However, no buyers were found at that time. 

Intergaz's transactions caught the Prosecutor General's Office's attention almost a year ago. 

The media, citing internal documents, wrote about transactions to alienate QazaqGaz's property.

Reports indicated that pipelines and real estate ended up in private hands, including Alan Partners LLC; the property could have been sold for next to nothing to the LLC.

This private company's legal address coincides with the base's location on Ratushnogo Street, 64, in the Jetisu district of Almaty.

2GIS indicates that Yerzhan Elgezekov posted two photographs of the industrial base. A person with the same name is listed as the head of the limited liability partnership, Alan Partners.

How Are They Related?

Publically available sources specify that Yerzhan Elgezekov is listed as the director of five more companies whose addresses coincide. Three of them evade taxes. The companies seem to be "shell companies" used to hide the actual beneficiaries.

QazAutoGas LLP's founder is DanKo-Regions LLP, which Zhanar Seidvalieva and Saltanat Ergusayeva own.

The first is the wife of Kairat Sharipbayev. Zhanar Seidvalieva is a businesswoman. Her name once appeared in journalistic investigations. 

OCCRP discovered that she has real estate on the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai.

It has long been claimed that her husband had a romantic relationship with Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter. Yet Seidvalieva Zhanar Mukhatovna is listed as Kairat Sharipbayev's official wife in the list of affiliated persons of the Aqtobe Oil Equipment Plant.

Meanwhile, several years ago, a YouTube video showed Dariga Nursultanovna being carried in the arms of a man who looked very much like Kairat Sharipbayev.

The wedding song "Zhar-Zhar" is playing in the background. The couple have also repeatedly attended public events together.

Real Estate, Offshore Companies...

The founder of two front companies, TOO "Jasyl Dolan" and DanaTech, is Kairat Sharipbaev's son Daniyar.

The 39-year-old man no longer carries his father's surname. Now, he is Daniyar Kairat.

Alan Partners is also associated with Bridge Property Management LLP and Jana Investment Property LLP, one of the founders of which is Bolashak Property LLP.

The beneficiary of the latter company is Invest Bolashak LLP, which DanKo Commerce LLP owns. We came across the Danko Investment Group FZE company, registered in the UAE.

Danko Investment Group FZE acts as the founder of several companies managing Kazakhstan's strategic assets.

In 2022, Danko Investment Group FZE, through its subsidiary Tau Bereke Group, transferred GPC Investment LLP, which is building a gas processing plant with a capacity of 1.15 billion cubic meters at the Kashagan field, to state ownership under a donation agreement.

The state received it after the January Events and Sharipbayev's resignation from QazaqGaz.

It remains to be seen how many more strategic assets ended up in the hands of private firms while Dariga Nazarbayeva's husband was running the national gas company. 

Original Author: Dinara Bekbolaeva