From the financial statements of the British company Jusan Technologies, which came to control the assets of the Jusan group worth almost $8 billion, it follows that it received $127 million in exchange for relinquishing ownership of the group's business in Kazakhstan.
According to the Telegram channel "Access to the Sea", the company QAZ42 (presumably linked to former KNB chairman Karim Massimov) also received around $8 million for its shareholding in Jusan Technologies. It had previously paid $20 million for these shares.
At the same time, it has emerged that the controlling party of Jusan Technologies was previously the American non-profit company Nu Generation Inc. This entity is believed to have been linked to various foundations of Nursultan Nazarbayev. The company's balance sheet included assets worth $1.5 billion.
"In total, through the British and American companies, the Nazarbayev foundations controlled Jusan Bank, its subsidiaries in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, insurance and brokerage companies, shopping centres, a mobile operator and other assets which previously belonged to the Tsesna group. More than 100 billion tenge was allocated from the state budget under Nazarbayev to rescue Tsesna from collapse and transform it into the Jusan group. The Jusan holding only returned this money at the beginning of this year after control passed to Galymzhan Essenov, the former son-in-law of Akhmetzhan Yessimov", the report states.
It is reported that after the January 2022 events, the authorities began to reclaim the assets of the Jusan group from the control of the British and American companies. Later, Nu Generation Inc. changed its management and removed the initials of the first president from its name, renaming itself New Generation Foundation, Inc.
"Court proceedings began in Kazakhstan and abroad, which ultimately led to the seizure of Jusan Bank's securities in February last year. By the summer of that year, the parties, i.e. the foreign structures linked to the Nazarbayev family and the country's authorities, managed to settle the process, mutual claims were withdrawn, and Essenov gained control over Jusan's assets", the report says.
As has been reported, at the time the Ministry of Justice did not disclose the terms of the deal in the interests of maintaining confidentiality. However, it is now clear from Jusan Technologies' reports that the Nazarbayev family foundations relinquished their claims on Jusan's assets for a nominal fee. Furthermore, it is reported that part of the $127 million was not actually sent to the Nazarbayev foundations — it was simply written off to settle past debts.
It should be noted that Jusan Technologies has repeatedly denied working in the interests of Nursultan Nazarbayev. The company even filed several lawsuits against media outlets and journalist associations on this matter.
"According to calculations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on court cases and various PR campaigns for 'reputation restoration'. The consulting company RJI Capital, owned by one of the directors of Jusan Technologies, Ron Wahid, earned the most from this (£720,000). He also handled the overseas PR support for Nursultan Nazarbayev's foundations and likely received contracts to work on improving the first president's image abroad", the report states.