Our latest article on the investors’ fight for the Vavilonskoye polymetallic ore field in the East Kazakhstan region titled “Bloomberg‘s Threatening Audio” was published more than four months ago, on September 20, 2022. A lot of different events have taken place since then, however, the general situation in the country has been unfolding in the way it usually happens in modern Kazakhstan.
For instance, attorney Erzhan Kumarov and the Almaty branch of Norton Rose Fulbright (Kazakhstan) Limited he chairs that filed a claim against KPM Service LLP to the Kazakhstan International Arbitration Court have won the case which clearly follows from the copy of the court’s decision of September 8, 2021 (case No. 156/2021) that we have received.
And this is considering that, by the time of the claim submission, the plaintiff did not exist, legally speaking, so the KIA had no right to accept their claim let alone make a decision based on it.
You can read more on the subject in our publication “The Claim from a Dead Company“.
By the way, later, the appeals department of the Almaty Municipal Court has confirmed the KIA verdict.
Incidentally, at first, KMP Service LLP had also lost the claim filed to the KIA from the Asker legal company LLP. On this claimant and their demands, we have written in full in our publication “Anna Has Already Spilled the Sunflower Oil“.
You will recall that Asker LLP serves as one of the instruments of exerting pressure on Erzhan Kumarov’s opponents and is also tightly connected with Bank CenterCredit and its Chairman of the Board of Directors Bakhytbek Bayseitov whose personal requests (the dubious requests at times, in our opinion) it regularly fulfils.
To confirm this fact, we are going to publish “The Statement of Making Changes to the Claim” of August 25, 2021, signed by Baygashev T.A. as the claimant’s representative (that is Norton Rose Fulbright (Kazakhstan). To be fair, let us point our that, later, the appeals department of the Almaty Municipal Court has revised the KIA verdict in favour of the defendant.
Incidentally, our insiders have told us in confidence who in the KIA received the money for the favourable arbitration decisions and how much. However, since we cannot prove this information via related documents, we will abstain from revealing the names and the numbers.
Still, we will underscore yet again that, in our opinion, the KIA is a limited liability partnership in the literal sense of these words. However, its founders are very famous and influential people in the legal (and not only legal) circles – Suleymenov Maydan Kontuarovich and Bikebayev Aydyn Zholshiyevich.
So far, KMP Service LLP has been winning the legal battle in the East-Kazakhstan region. However, there is no guarantee that this is the final victory. A lot will depend on how convincing the arguments of the opposing parties will be, and not only the legal ones.
We believe our esteemed reader understands what we are talking about.
Those who wish to learn more about this case may read the following publications.
“In the Footsteps of the Great Combinator“
”The Third Part of the Babylon Ballet"
Since, as you will recall, our interest in the investors’ fight for the Vavilonskoye polymetallic ore field in the East Kazakhstan region had stemmed, first of all, from the desire to show to the potential Western investors how risky it is to work in Kazakhstan (inconvenient, dangerous and uncomfortable), we believe our task to be completed.
Of course, the foreign investor whom we have used as a legal guinea pig (we apologise for the definition) has already lost, basically, since they have spent too much time and effort only to save their investments instead of building and developing their business.
In our opinion, the fault lies not only with their business-opponents but with the Kazakh authoritarian political system and the super-presidential vertical. They are at fault due to that simple reason that the omnipresent corruption serves as one of the key elements that glues the parts of the system together. And this corruption grows from top to bottom.
Still, the corruptibility and dependency of the Kazakh legal system on the power holders is no secret to anyone. However, we have been stunned by the fact that private arbitration in the country is no better. And, in some aspects, even worse.
In conclusion, we will release some very curious audio recordings of three phone conversations (in Russian).
According to our insiders, these conversations involve the people whose voices are reminiscent of that of Chingis Dzhanabayev (allegedly, Erzhan Kumarov’s relative), Anet Abdullina and Ruslan Mukhamedov. The latter is considered a henchman of Deputy Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development Ruslan Baymishev who used to chair the subsurface management department.
It looks like, in the course of these conversations, they were discussing the issue of prolongating the terms of contract No. 4473-TPI with MTS-Ertis LLP to conduct explorations of polymetallic ore in the Vavilonskoye field that was estimated to constitute 250 thousand currency units (probably dollars and euro, not the tenge).
Since we cannot determine who exactly was speaking, we are not going to claim that the information provided by our sources corresponds to reality. However, if you recognise the voices and want to verify their identity, you are welcome to contact us on that.
