In Switzerland, the Vaud canton court has banned the renovation of the Fleur du Lac hotel, owned by the eponymous company Fleur du Lac SA, which is in turn owned by Timur and Dinara Kulibayev.
According to the Telegram channel "Exit to the Sea", the hotel in the town of Morges, built in 1955, has 30 rooms. The last partial renovation took place there in 2016.
In 2019, Fleur du Lac SA began a full renovation of the hotel. The owners wanted to demolish the building and build a more modern hotel in its place.
It is reported that the plan was to at least double the number of rooms. At the same time, the Kulibayevs wanted to build a spa, an indoor swimming pool, and an underground car park for 120-130 cars. They expected to spend $20-30 million on all of this.
However, in 2020 the hotel was effectively closed. Local residents and authorities decided that the new hotel "would create too much noise in the area". Additionally, the renovation plan involved cutting down around 20 trees on the adjacent land, which also displeased the townspeople.
This is not the first time the Kulibayevs have had problems with property in Europe. For example, it is reported that in Germany, castles belonging to Nazarbayev's relatives, worth 100 million euros, are effectively abandoned.
Furthermore, it has emerged that in Spain, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Timur Kulibayev owns the Can Juncadella estate on the Mediterranean coast through a chain of his companies. In 2009, the Kazakh businessman even took legal action over it against local authorities. This was all because of a public road which the estate owner had unilaterally blocked off for local residents.
But one of the most high-profile disputes over Kulibayev's foreign property unfolded over the renovation of Sunninghill Park mansion, 40 km from London. The estate was previously owned by Prince Andrew - the son of Queen Elizabeth II.
Kulibayev bought the mansion for £15 million. However, the British media noted that the Kazakh businessman paid the prince £3 million more than the asking price. Journalists at the time speculated that the sum paid above the property's valuation was a disguised bribe to the prince. Some time later, the Kulibayevs demolished the residence and built a new mansion in its place.