A coalition of foreign media and individual reporters - the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has reported that on the yacht whose passengers sparked a fire on a Greek island, there were wealthy Kazakhstani nationals who left the country on a private jet the following day.
According to vlast.kz, journalists, citing shipping documents, claim that on that day there were 7 Kazakhstani citizens on the yacht "Persefoni I". Among them was allegedly one of the country's well-known businessmen, Daniyar Abulgazin.
It is reported that the day after the fire, flight data services showed that a private jet Abulgazin frequently uses had flown from Athens to Almaty.
Furthermore, journalists learned that on board the vessel were Abulgazin's son, his wife - the head of one of Kazakhstan's largest charitable foundations, Aidan Suleimenova, and her assistant.
In addition, those listed among the passengers include the chairperson of the board of Halyk Bank, Umut Shayakhmetova, her husband - a former top manager of the oil company KMG International NV, Beimbet Shayakhmetov, and their daughter.
"Both Abulgazin and Shayakhmetov are closely linked to Timur Kulibayev, a businessman and the son-in-law of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Abulgazin was his deputy in the Samruk-Kazyna fund, and Shayakhmetova heads the bank that Kulibayev co-owns with his wife", the statement reads.
At the same time, it emerged that Abulgazin, Suleimenova, and Shayakhmetov did not answer calls or messages from journalists requesting comment on the situation.
Incidentally, last summer, as part of environmental protection efforts, Halyk Bank, which Umut Shayakhmetova heads, joined the United Nations Global Compact. At the time, the businesswoman pointed out that issues related to environmental protection were not foreign to the company.
"We are required not only to create value for our shareholders but also to be a socially responsible business, and for our employees, a good employer, all while not losing sight of environmental issues. <…> We support our clients when we finance 'green' development projects", she said.
For context, a major fire broke out recently on the Greek island of Hydra. It was reported that it was caused by fireworks set off by tourists from a luxury yacht. As has become known, renting this vessel during the tourist season costs €299,000 (approximately 149 million tenge) per week. By the time the flames were extinguished, they had engulfed an area of roughly 1,200 hectares.
Initially, it was stated that the tourists who inadvertently caused the fire were citizens of Kazakhstan, but later Greek media claimed that they were Pakistani nationals.