The heir of the late co-owner of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) Alijan Ibragimov — Shukhrat Ibragimov — has become the sole owner of the Belgian company DDSF Holding, which owns the family estate near Waterloo.
According to the Telegram channel ‘Access to the Sea’, the company was previously jointly owned by Shukhrat and his brother Furkat, but the latter withdrew from the founders in March of this year. The changes were officially published in the register only at the end of July. Furkat left a similar position in another family structure — DDSF Managing — back in 2022, a year after their father's death.
DDSF Holding owns an impressive estate covering 3.2 hectares in the municipality of Braine-l’Alleud, not far from Waterloo. The area is surrounded by a massive brick wall, and the gates, as seen on Google Street View panoramas, are guarded by Belgian shepherds.
The plot contains a main palace with fountains, a decorative garden, staff quarters and a football pitch. The market value of similar properties in this area is estimated at a minimum of €5 million (3.2 billion tenge).
The Ibragimov family settled in Belgium in the late 1990s, near the residence of Alijan Ibragimov’s partner — Patokh Shodiyev. In 1997, Ibragimov, Shodiyev and Alexander Mashkevich received $55 million (29.6 billion tenge) from the Belgian company Tractebel for facilitating their entry into Kazakhstan's energy market.
This deal later became the subject of an investigation by Belgian law enforcement. Ultimately, in connection with the corruption and money laundering case, the Kazakh entrepreneurs paid $23 million (12.4 billion tenge) as a settlement to the Belgian authorities.
The activities of Eurasian Resources Group have repeatedly been the subject of international investigations. For example, in the UK, a case concerning corruption and fraud in ERG's operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was considered for almost ten years — but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Similar investigations were conducted in Guatemala, where local authorities suspected group representatives of bribing the country's president, but this case also did not go to trial.
It is reported that after the death of Alijan Ibragimov, relations between his heirs and former partners have become noticeably strained. For over a year, Shukhrat Ibragimov has been in conflict with the Shodiyev family over control of the Eurasian Financial Company, which owns one of Kazakhstan's largest banks. Munisa Shodiyeva, daughter of Patokh Shodiyev, has recently become involved in this dispute.
It has also emerged that Shukhrat Ibragimov is simultaneously engaged in redistributing family assets. He recently put a villa in the south of France, near Nice, up for sale.
It is noted that the decision may be linked to the seizure of assets belonging to his business partner — Chechen businessman Musa Bazhayev, who came under EU sanctions after the start of the war in Ukraine. The villa on the French Riviera could not be saved, but Bazhayev managed to transfer his Italian assets to Ibragimov in exchange for a stake in a joint gold mining project in Kyrgyzstan.