Businessman and former matchmaker of Dariga Nazarbayeva, Kairat Boranbayev, while serving his sentence in a penal colony, sold off his foreign assets. It has become known that at the end of 2023 he sold the Grushkov sports complex in the Czech Republic, which he owned, incurring losses of over $700 thousand.
According to the Telegram channel "Access to the Sea", the complex, located near Karlovy Vary, includes a main building, a tennis court, and plots of land with a total area of over 0.5 hectares. In 2014, it came under the control of Kairat Boranbayev's company – "JILO spol. s r.o".
Initially, the asset was registered under the Cypriot trust Marcuard, and later transferred to the businessman himself. The purchase cost him 24.2 million Czech koruna (approximately $1.26 million at the exchange rate at the time).
In November 2023, shortly before his release from the penal colony, Boranbayev initiated a reorganisation of his assets in the Czech Republic. Around the same time, the sale of the sports complex began. The new owner of the property became Czech businessman Radek Makar, who purchased it for 10 million Czech koruna (approximately $500 thousand at the exchange rate at the time).
The reasons for such a low price have not been officially stated, but according to available information, the deal may have been urgent — with the aim of fulfilling obligations to the authorities of Kazakhstan.
After the deal involving the Grushkov complex, Boranbayev also liquidated the Czech company Balma, through which he owned the Alkhan and Mignon hotels in Karlovy Vary, as well as luxury real estate in Prague. It is noted that millions of dollars were transferred to Balma's accounts by structures of the state company "KazMunayGas". After the liquidation of Balma, these assets came under the control of another of Boranbayev's firms — "JILO spol. s.r.o.", which previously owned the sports complex.
After the cases against Boranbayev were closed at the beginning of 2024, the Swiss authorities unfroze $200 million belonging to his family, which had previously been seized at the request of the Kazakh authorities.
For context, in March 2023, the businessman Kairat Boranbayev, his partner Roman Nakhanov, and former deputy chairman of the board of QazaqGaz, Taiyr Zhanuzak, were sentenced to 8 years in prison for embezzling funds on an especially large scale in the quasi-state sector.
Later, it was reported that Boranbayev voluntarily returned assets worth over 90 billion tenge to state ownership and transferred 30 billion tenge to the Education Infrastructure Support Fund.
In November 2023, Boranbayev was released from the penal colony. In May 2024, Deputy Chairman of the AFM Zhenis Yelemesov told journalists that overall, Boranbayev had returned 134.5 billion tenge to the state.