Swiss Court Unfreezes $212 Million in Accounts Linked to Oligarch's Wife

A Swiss Federal Criminal Court has released $212 million from accounts allegedly belonging to Sholpan Boranbayeva, wife of Kazakhstani oligarch Kairat Boranbayev, according to a report by "Vlast" cited by Orda.kz.

Following Boranbayev's arrest in 2022, Kazakhstan's authorities requested bank documentation from the Swiss Prosecutor General's Office regarding the oligarch's and his family members' accounts. Subsequently, at Kazakhstan's request, a Swiss court froze Sholpan Boranbayeva's accounts in June 2023.

The situation changed after Boranbayev negotiated a settlement with investigators, agreeing to return certain assets to the state. In response, Kazakhstan extended a reciprocal gesture of goodwill.

An April 26, 2024, letter from Kazakhstan's Prosecutor General confirms that Boranbayev entered a guilty plea agreement in his criminal case, which has since been court-approved and implemented. Under this agreement, Kazakhstan relinquished claims to Boranbayev's assets, including those held internationally.

Kazakhstan's officials informed the Swiss court that they lacked sufficient evidence to prove the illicit origin of funds in the accounts held by the oligarch and his wife. Consequently, in January 2025, the Swiss court reversed its previous freezing orders.

This development indicates that Kazakhstan has officially resolved its disputes with Boranbayev, with asset restitution completed and the businessman now free from further prosecution. The Financial Monitoring Agency has explicitly stated that no new criminal cases are pending against the oligarch.

Questions had persisted regarding the legal status of assets Boranbayev transferred to the state.

In March 2024, Orda.kz discovered that some enterprises and properties he had relinquished in exchange for his release still formally belonged to him. The Ministry of Finance later acknowledged that while Boranbayev had pledged certain assets, he had not signed the necessary documentation, though the actual transfers have since been completed.

This case echoes previous instances where foreign jurisdictions have scrutinized Kazakhstani oligarchs' finances before abruptly ending investigations.

In 2010, Swiss prosecutors examined Timur Kulibayev's assets before closing the case three years later, possibly at Kazakhstan's request.

The Geneva prosecutor's office is investigating real estate purchased by Dinara Kulibayeva, Timur Kulibayev's wife, in Switzerland between 2019 and 2020. 

Such investigations typically commence either at the request of the citizen's home country or from banking institutions. Kazakhstan's Prosecutor General's Office has stated that the Asset Recovery Committee is not involved in the investigation of Kulibayeva's transactions.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny