Anticor has reported the detention of a certain former minister of justice on suspicion of lobbying for the interests of an affiliated company by concluding annual contracts for the provision of knowingly unnecessary services, which caused particularly large-scale damage to the state. And although information about the identity of the former minister is not being disclosed, it is obvious that we are talking about Marat Beketayev. The editorial board of FBRK decided to remind you in detail about the life and work of the former head of the Ministry of Justice.
In January 2022, against the backdrop of protests in Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed the government of Askar Mamin. One of the members of the previous government of the Republic of Kazakhstan who lost his seat was Marat Beketayev. However, unlike his colleagues in misfortune, the former minister of justice found a new job immediately – within 10 days, Beketayev was appointed advisor to the new Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov.
Marat Beketayev even wrote a farewell post on social media about the successes and achievements of the department during his leadership, which inevitably provoked a reaction from numerous media outlets that had for many years publicised the 'heroic' exploits of the former minister. Before recalling the stormy biography of the former head of the Ministry of Justice, let us talk a little about his relatives.
CLOSE RELATIVES OF MARAT BEKETAYEV
It is no secret that Marat Beketayev's own brother – Ruslan Beketayev – previously held the positions of chairman of the treasury committee, vice-minister of finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and minister of economy and financial policy of the EEC. Today, he is the Chief Director for Economics and Finance at JSC "National Atomic Company "Kazatomprom".
Little is known about the late father of the Beketayevs. For some time, Bakytzhan Beketayev was the head of a prison in the village where, according to some sources, their family lived. Later, the head of the family became a colonel in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the early 2000s, Bakytzhan Beketayev was a member of the board of JSC "Kazakhstan Mortgage Company" (renamed in 2021 to "Kazakhstan Housing Company") and even headed its Astana branch.
Marat Beketayev has a wife, Gulnara Beketayeva, also known as Nurpeisova, and two daughters: Alina and Malika. All members of the former minister's family, as well as his brother Ruslan Beketayev, his father-in-law Mulik Nurpeisov, and his wife's brother Murat Nurpeisov, are affiliated persons in JSC "National Center for Personnel Management of the Civil Service."
Murat Nurpeisov, in turn, is the founder of companies such as LLP "MTSE" (Wholesale trade of other machinery and equipment) and LLP "Kazpribor Center" (Wholesale trade of a wide range of goods without any specification).
Marat Beketayev's paternal uncle is known by a different surname, Kambar Shalgimbayev. Shalgimbayev is the president and founder of the company LLP "SH Group Partners" (Raising of other cattle and buffaloes). But he is remembered for the fact that, while president of JSC "Development Bank of Kazakhstan" (DBK) in 2006, he set his own salary at $100 thousand per month. His deputies then earned less - just $40 thousand.
His wife, Galina Shalgimbayeva, also made headlines in many media outlets in her time: she was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC "Delta Bank", whose license was revoked in 2017, and in February 2021 her name was among the detained top managers of "Delta".
At various times, Shalgimbayeva headed structural divisions of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan for securities and financial markets, was a member of the National Securities Commission, oversaw these issues at the National Bank, and was the head of the liquidated LLP "GALATTON". Currently, she is the president of the consulting company "GALA Invest Consulting" (Consulting on commercial activities and management).
LLP "BOLASHAK CONSULTING GROUP" AND THE STATI CASE
There are also details in the life and work of the former minister of justice, Marat Beketayev, which, unfortunately, were not widely covered in the media. The FBRK editorial board learned interesting details about the activities of the Kazakh law firm LLP "Bolashak Consulting Group", which, judging by the information provided, lobbies for the interests of a partnership with an international private intelligence firm.
Also, it became known from a source that "Bolashak", with which the Ministry of Justice concludes contracts for services to protect state interests in courts, in turn receives state funding and hires international legal, investigative and PR firms. The most key of the foreign consultants hired by Bolashak is Arcanum Global.
However, the relationship between Bolashak and Arcanum also worked in the opposite direction, reports a FBRK source. Confirmation of this was the leak of emails from Marat Beketayev's mailbox to the Kazaword database. For example, in July 2012, Bolashak invoiced Arcanum for the amount of $49 thousand.
Since 2020, Bolashak has registered several new websites as part of dark PR efforts against Stati. The domain of one of the sites was registered to an employee of the Ministry of Justice – Yevgeny Alekseyev, who in 2018 was also a shareholder of the Bolashak company. In addition, the published correspondence between Alekseyev and Beketayev from Kazaword indicates their long-standing friendly relationship.
In November 2022, Bolashak Consulting Group launched a new corporate website through which they promoted an expanded business proposition for those interested, but all new foreign operations were invariably linked to the company Arcanum.
Another long-standing scandal involving Beketayev relates to his period working as the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice. From 2014 to 2015, he initiated 17 different checks at the Center for Forensic Examinations under the ministry and suspected colleagues of corruption. In response, the deputy minister and the director of the CFE wrote a report about him addressed to the head of the Ministry of Justice, Berik Imashev. As a result, Beketayev was accused of exceeding his official authority, after which he successfully moved to the position of deputy head of the Presidential Administration.
In that same year, 2014, there was another interesting story about how Beketayev flew to England with his family. Recalling this story, after a long 7 years, the media calculated how much such a trip cost. The total travel expenses amounted to more than 10 thousand pounds sterling (1 pound in 2014 = 1.67 US dollars) – this includes the flight to London for 5 people, hotel accommodation, and then an apartment.
During this trip, according to correspondence obtained from Kazaword, lawyers from the London firm Reed Smith looked after Beketayev's children. This was billed as legal services, and the cheque was issued for hourly payment of legal fees.
During Marat Beketayev's years of public service, Kazakhstan repeatedly participated in international court proceedings. Recall, for example, the conflict surrounding ENRC, in which Beketayev, as executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, represented the government as a non-executive director.
The most prominent and lengthy international dispute involving Kazakhstan was the court battle between the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Moldovan investors Anatol and Gabriel Stati. Marat Beketayev was already the head of the department during this period. But what worried Kazakh citizens most was the key question: how much is this international conflict costing taxpayers?
Beketayev did not give a specific answer to questions about the cost of state expenses for the court proceedings with Stati. However, in 2021, journalists managed to calculate that the amount of direct and indirect property damage from this case is effectively $337 million, that is, more than 60% of the lost claim amount of $506 million.
With each passing year, the interest only grows; in 2022 alone, the amount tripled – to almost $540 million. According to the latest data, Kazakhstan's debt in the Stati case could reach over $1 billion. These will, of course, be paid from the taxes of Kazakh citizens, and not from Beketayev's personal pocket.
Moreover, considering the expenses of the Ministry of Justice under Beketayev for commercial espionage services and services for political persecution, which were used in the Stati case, we could be talking about an amount of $500 million. So, for example, in 2021 alone, the Ministry of Justice was supposed to receive 21 billion 195 million tenge from the budget of Kazakhstan to support the proceedings abroad - these funds were personally managed by Beketayev and his team.
It is obvious that Beketayev and his team took advantage of the fact that the country's leadership was ready to allocate colossal sums for the persecution of its enemies without any tangible prospects. Despite the fact that the Stati family themselves stated that their criminal prosecution was fabricated by the former head of the KNB, Karim Massimov, and the oligarch Kairat Boranbayev.
If Massimov and Boranbayev admit that they ordered the fabrication of the case against the Moldovan businessmen, this would mean that Marat Beketayev previously received direct orders from Massimov or Boranbayev and carried out the international persecution of the Stati family using fabricated information, thereby consciously causing financial and reputational damage to Kazakhstan on the international stage over a long period.
During his time at the Ministry of Justice, Marat Beketayev also found himself a hostage to the protracted confrontation between Nursultan Nazarbayev and his most famous and irreconcilable opponent, Mukhtar Ablyazov. As a result, it was the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan and its head who found themselves on the front line of the 'war' with Ablyazov, while the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the KNB of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the former financial police, now the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Combating Corruption, moved to the second echelon.
It was assumed that this is exactly why, after the 'January events', Beketayev was moved to a much less prominent position for external observers in the state apparatus. At the same time, it is not certain that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Erlan Karin acted independently in this particular case, rather than at the request of, if not Nursultan Nazarbayev himself, then people from his inner circle. After all, the 'leader of the nation', now a 'retired pensioner', cannot allow his main enemies to win.
SCANDALS SURROUNDING MARAT BEKETAYEV
We have written repeatedly about the injustice of the judicial system in Kazakhstan: about corrupt judges, biased decisions, ignored statements, and much more. Speaking about the biography of Marat Beketayev, one recalls a high-profile incident when, in the summer of 2009, as Vice-Minister of Justice, he was involved in a scandal for driving while intoxicated.
Speaking of the questions Kazakh citizens pose regarding the Beketayev brothers, it is worth mentioning the so-called "Beketayev-Oksikbayev Law", behind which Ruslan Beketayev was somehow involved. The updated law on auditing activities, where one of the key changes was the creation of a professional council, to which functions for quality control and certification of auditors were transferred, caused bewilderment among the people.
Beketayev then refused to undergo a medical examination, later claiming that he was not the one driving, but his friend. And the court did not take into account the official video recording provided by the police, on the grounds that the recording was made illegally. In the end, Beketayev successfully avoided punishment.
Need we speak about the objectivity of the court at that moment? After all, the case was back in the 'Old Kazakhstan', and from this year the president intends to introduce principles of justice, transparency and solidarity in the country. But it is difficult to imagine fair justice in the 'New Kazakhstan' while representatives of the 'Old Kazakhstan', in particular such as Marat Beketayev, were sitting in the Presidential Administration.
Incidentally, Marat Beketayev also came under public criticism when lawyers and legal professionals demanded Beketayev's resignation and wanted to speak at a rally against changes to the law "On advocacy and legal assistance", which was ultimately cancelled due to a ban from the sanitary doctor. The head of the Ministry of Justice then stated that he did not intend to resign.
Beketayev's team, which we mentioned earlier, also once appeared in the media in a less than favourable light. Thus, in March 2018, an article was published stating how Marat Beketayev's subordinates did everything possible to prevent an American investor from recovering money stolen by a citizen of Kazakhstan.
Throughout his entire track record, Marat Beketayev also managed to become famous for statements unrelated to the sphere of his department. Thus, in October 2017, in response to journalists' questions about which transport he preferred, the minister of justice openly stated that he rents a Lexus car at the expense of the state budget. At the same time, noting that his car was not "that expensive". And in 2021, Beketayev immodestly switched to an electric car Jac, assembled in Kazakhstan, costing about 15 million tenge.
In that same year, 2021, news appeared in media headlines that Marat Beketayev introduced new rules of etiquette for journalists. It turned out that by the rule of etiquette, the head of the department meant the rule that all questions are asked by journalists after the plenary session of the Senate. Colleagues from other ministries, apparently, turned out to be less well-mannered, as they did not refuse to give comments to journalists before the session.
Another little-known scandal involving Beketayev is related to corruption in the forensic expert institution under the Ministry of Justice. In an open letter from 2013, posted on the "Open Dialogue" platform, it is alleged that Marat Beketayev profited from the corruption of two high-ranking officials under his patronage in the regional branch of the forensic expert institution.
Open sources, including the leak of emails from Kazaword, confirm key relationships, and several unpublished details provide some grounds for accusations against the former minister of justice.
WHAT THE FORMER MINISTER OF JUSTICE OWNS
Marat Beketayev was removed from his position as advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan back in December 2022, however, this became known only two months later. And later, new details emerged about the past activities of the former head of the Ministry of Justice.
It was possible to identify Marat Beketayev's Latvian assistant; she turned out to be Sandi Shayanova, who was a member of a group of business partners and family friends of Aslan Musin, the former head of the presidential administration during Nazarbayev's rule.
It is worth recalling that the "clan" of Musin's family and friends is considered responsible for the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of US dollars from state funds, and several members of his family have been accused by Kazakh authorities and media of organised crime, in which, according to some media, Aslan Musin himself is directly involved.
The identity and activities of Sandi Shayanova have not been mentioned anywhere before. Meanwhile, Shayanova, as the trusted assistant of the head of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, between 2018 and 2020 was a shareholder of the company A Space SIA, through which the Musins made investments in real estate in Riga, Latvia. It is reported that the company A Space SIA was registered in Latvia on 26 July 2017. Initially, 70% of the shares belonged to Aslan Musin's nephew – Anuarbek Musin. The owner of the remaining 30% and the sole member of the board was listed as Sandi Shayanova.
According to a source, the company owned shares in four organisations, most of whose owners are also connected to the Musin family and their associates. In less than a year, Sandi Shayanova ceased to be a shareholder of A Space SIA, and later left the board. In June 2018, the company's shares were divided equally between Aslan Musin's nephews - Anuarbek and Imangali Musin. In July 2020, Shayanova again became a shareholder, receiving 50% of the shares from Anuarbek Musin, but only to return them to him six months later. According to the latest data, the shares of A Space SIA are owned only by the Musin brothers.
In addition, as the source reported, from May 2020 to September 2022, A Space SIA owned 20% of another SIA, Dekart Estates, which also made Sandi Shayanova a beneficial owner for about six months. Where Beketayev's assistant originally got the funds for the investment in A Space SIA was anyone's guess.
Thus, Marat Beketayev serves as a clear example of a remnant of the past in the New Just Kazakhstan. It is astounding how a person who, during his years of public service, provoked a series of grievances and criticism from the population, continued with impunity to remain close to the government and receive a salary at the expense of the same population.
The editorial board of FBRK believes that to create a new, fair and honest state, it is necessary to eradicate from the government representatives of Old Kazakhstan who have such a notorious biography as Marat Beketayev.