Mukhtar Qabyluly Ablyazov (Kazakh: Мұхтар Қабылұлы Әблязов, Mūhtar Qabylūly Äbliazov; born 16 May 1963) is a Kazakh businessman and political activist who served as chairman of Bank Turan Alem (BTA Bank),[1] and is a co-founder and a leader of the unregistered political party Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (QDT).

[2] He was also the former head of the state-owned Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC) as well as briefly holding the position of Minister for Energy, Industry, and Trade under Balgimbayev's cabinet before resigning from and joining the opposition against President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

In 1992, Ablyazov started his business by supplying all the regions of Kazakhstan with products such as salt, sugar, flower, matches, tea, chocolate, medicine, photocopiers, fax machines and computers.

[17] In 1998, Ablyazov was a leading member of consortium of Kazakh investors that acquired Bank Turan Alem in a privatization auction for $72 million.

[18] In 2008, BTA Bank was the largest commercial financial institution in Kazakhstan, with internal reserves allowing for cooperation with foreign and domestic owners of the shares.

This opposition initiative, according to RFE/RL, “quickly drew the wrath of the regime.”[16] In July 2002, as one of the main leaders of the QDT, Ablyazov was convicted of “abusing official powers as a minister” and sentenced to six years in prison.

After his release from prison, Ablyazov reportedly spent “millions of dollars funding opposition groups and independent media.” RFE/RL has quoted Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, as saying that “Nazarbayev to a certain extent felt betrayed” by Ablyazov and the others, given that “he thinks that he provided them the space to become wealthy, to become well-known, to make a career in state service or in business, and they challenged him.

[16] However, a High Court judge held Ablyazov in contempt and imposed three prison sentences for failing to disclose assets including a nine-bedroom mansion in London's "Billionaire's Row" and a 100-acre estate in Windsor Great Park.

[28] Once, while he was being driven in London, a car “rammed his vehicle repeatedly.”[26] While in Britain, Ablyazov maintained close ties to opposition media in Kazakhstan.

RFE/RL has noted that in 2011, the broadcaster K+ and the newspapers Vzglyad and Golos Respubliki, along with other private Kazakh media with ties to Ablyazov, “gave full-scale coverage to the bloody police crackdown on striking oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen.” Not long after, Kazakh courts ordered these media outlets closed, along with the opposition Alga party, headed by Vladimir Kozlov, an Ablyazov ally, who was sentenced to a long prison term.

[31] Ablyazov's wife and daughter were deported by Italy in May 2013 for allegedly staying in the country illegally; they were found to have false Central African Republic diplomatic passports.

He is also a member of the centre-right party ‘The People of Freedom' headed by Silvio Berlusconi, known for his friendly relations with the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

He noted that the decision to deport her was made without necessary verification or thorough examination of the situation by the Italian bodies: “For any country, it is unacceptable to give in to the pressure and interference of foreign diplomacy, which resulted in the hasty expulsion of a mother and child from Italy on the basis of distorted information.

On 24 December 2013, a representative of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a change in the restriction of liberty measure for Alma Shalabayeva and the withdrawal of her prohibition from leaving Almaty.

The decision on the award of refugee status was made by the Territorial Commission in Rome for Recognition of International Protection, under Article 1 of the Geneva Convention.

Ablyazova and both Khrapunov were co-defendants in a suit for violations of RICO Act for using U.S. real estate to embezzle and defraud Almaty city.

[44] Interpol said Ablyazov was wanted in Russia on separate charges for "large scale fraud,” money laundering and document forgery.

[citation needed] JSC BTA Bank v Mukhtar Ablyazov is a landmark financial fraud case consisting of up to eleven proceedings before the English High Court that has set precedents for judgement monetary value, and procedure and standards for recovery of assets held in disparate jurisdictions worldwide.

[47] 24 March 2009 BTA Bank launched legal proceedings against Ablyazov in the High Court (England and Wales) shortly after his arrival in London.

[51] In October 2010, private investigators found documents and disc drives relating to the bank in a self-storage facility in north London, by following a brother-in-law of Ablyazov.

"[17] In a May 2011 letter, Ablyazov accused Nazarbayev and his advisor Bulat Utemuratov of being the real owners of a 48.73% share in Kazzinc, a firm that Glencore International was planning to buy at the time.

[54] According to the Daily Telegraph, the Kazakh government threatened to punish British firms by awarding lucrative contracts to China if the UK granted Ablyazov asylum.

One report suggested that an “obvious reason for trying to nail Ablyazov” was that “unlike other political figures in exile, he has a presence inside Kazakhstan through his links to an opposition group and local media outlets.” The accusation was, according to this report, “designed to tarnish his reputation – and that of his associates, too – in the eyes of the international community,” as well as to provide “a useful distraction from the embarrassment which the government suffered after violence in the western town of Janaozen in December [2011], in which its police force is accused of opening fire on protesters, killing 14 and injuring over 100.” The report said that “authorities seem dead set on eliminating Ablyazov's capacity to exert any influence in Kazakstan (sic).”[56] In November 2012, a U.K. court ordered Mukhtar Ablyazov to pay £1.02 billion ($1.63 billion) plus interest.

[65] Wells Fargo has been subpoenaed for transactions history of Gennady Petelin specific to New York real estate investments made with the allegedly stolen BTA Bank funds.

[78] The suit alleged that the Chetrit Group helped Ablyazov and Khrapunov hide $40 million in two condo conversion projects.

[79] While Ablyazov was BTA Chairman, the bank partnered on investment projects in Georgia with the Silk Road Group,[80] a company with a history of alleged financial fraud and money laundering.

[81] The Silk Road Group was revealed to be a client of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialized in offshore corporate structuring, accounting for purpose of sanction and tax evasion, and subject of the Panama Papers.

[84] A Kazakh businessman, Muratkhan Tokmadi, was convicted of negligent manslaughter for the accidental shooting of banker Yerzhan Tatishev on a hunting trip in 2004, for which he was sentenced to one year in prison.

[90][91] Ablyazov denies these claims and maintains that they are simply a response to his reformation of the political group DVK in April 2017, the primary goal of which is to remove Nazarbayev from power, “Why did Kazakhstan's authorities only in June 2017, in the space of 13-and-a-half years after the hunting death of Yerzhan Tatishev suddenly remember about all this?”.

No bling, no yachts, no trophy wife and no ostentatious cars, he cuts a modest figure, favouring Marks and Spencer suits.”[26] Media related to Mukhtar Ablyazov at Wikimedia Commons