In March of last year, the FBRK editorial team reported on the convoluted situation faced by entrepreneurs in Almaty, who had invested significant sums in the construction of the «Eurasia» Shopping Centre.
Today, new details of the case allow us to put forward hypotheses about the true reasons behind the conflict, which continues to this day.
The story begins with Igor Ovsyannikov, the head of Eurasia LLP, who became the owner of the Almaty flea market back in the 1990s.
When architectural transformations began in Almaty, markets were rapidly being phased out. The only option available to Mr Ovsyannikov was to demolish the flea market and replace it with a proper building.
In 2014, Igor Ovsyannikov proposed that local entrepreneurs who had stalls at the market should jointly build a shopping centre, where each could potentially own their own space in the future.
In total, the entrepreneurs handed over approximately $4 million to Ovsyannikov, thereby investing in the capital construction of «Eurasia».
The fact that the money was transferred was confirmed by a receipt issued to each individual.
After construction was completed in 2015, the entrepreneurs demanded from Mr Ovsyannikov the promised documents confirming their right of ownership.
The owners received certificates in exchange for the receipts, although these were not official documents, but rather «club cards».
In 2022, Mr Ovsyannikov sold Eurasia LLP. However, the entrepreneurs only found out about the sale of the shopping centre several months later, directly from the «new owner», when he came to negotiate the terms of the lease.
The bewildered boutique owners tried to explain the situation to the new proprietor, but it turned out that the «club cards» once issued to them by Mr Ovsyannikov do not constitute proof of their ownership rights to the retail space.
The new director of «Eurasia», introducing himself as Shamil, directed the businesspeople to sort things out with the former owner, who by that time had already vanished without a trace.
Igor Ovsyannikov remains on the international wanted list to this day in connection with an initiated case of fraud on an especially large scale.
As for Eurasia LLP, according to data from the kompra.kz service, the composition of the Partnership's managers and founders changed multiple times in 2022.
Today, at the head of Eurasia LLP is Kamilla Sultanova, and her interests are represented by Shamil Abish.
As it has become known, he is not the legal owner of the shopping centre; however, introducing himself as the director, he conducts all negotiations with the entrepreneurs, sends them new contracts and notices, and also signs documents.
Eurasia LLP, as became clear later, is also not the owner of the shopping centre, but it does own the land beneath the «Eurasia» Shopping Centre.
The shopping centre itself belonged for a time to Just Oil LLP, which was established in 2019, and its sole director and founder is Saida Altayeva.
But the oddities do not end there. Just Oil LLP, after some time, sold the shopping centre to a maslikhat deputy from the «Amanat» party, Dastan Dzhan teliyev, for a nominal sum of 150 million tenge.
Over the following six months, the owner of the shopping centre would change another 6 times, a number which includes Yesp olova Aktoty Tlekte sovna – the daughter of Tlekte s Yesp olov, the former rector of the Kazakh National Agrarian University.
Incidentally, there is a belief that Mr Yesp olov is also the father of Asel Isabayeva - the second wife of Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Despite the fact that the owners of the shopping centre changed quite frequently, the centre's working staff remained unchanged. Furthermore, none of the entrepreneurs were notified about the change of the shopping centre's owners.
Likewise, the entrepreneurs did not know about the very existence of Eurasia LLP, and all these years believed they were paying so-called «state rent».
As of today, the owner of the shopping centre is Eurasian LTD LLP.
It is noteworthy that the Partnership was established on 13 December 2022, approximately one day before the purchase of the property. The first founder appointed was the already familiar Dastan Dzhan teliyev.
On 25 January 2023, Dastan Dzhan teliyev left the composition of founders and was replaced first by Dosbol Zhilkibayev, a maslikhat deputy for the Zhambyl region, and then by Askar Meldebek, the head of the Educational Centre Ulagat LLP, where Mr Dzhan teliyev was also a founder.
Incidentally, after purchasing the shopping centre for 150 million tenge, Mr Dzhan teliyev had the acquired property valued. According to our sources, the market value of the shopping centre was estimated at 3.5 billion tenge.
In the summer of 2023, following another round of media publicity, employees of Bank CenterCredit JSC contacted the entrepreneurs and informed them that the sales transactions for the shopping centre in 2022 were carried out illegally, as the property remains in pledge with the bank to this day.
However, over time, the employees of Bank CenterCredit JSC stopped getting in touch with the entrepreneurs.
Six months later, it became known that «Bank CenterCredit» had filed a lawsuit against Eurasia LLP, Just Oil LLP, Dastan Dzhan teliyev and Eurasian LTD LLP to have the documents confirming the sales transactions for the shopping centre declared invalid.
According to our sources, the lawsuit by Bank CenterCredit JSC was dismissed, and the parties reached a «settlement agreement».
What this agreement entailed is not known to us for certain. However, it is obvious that these arrangements were enough to bring the case of the defrauded entrepreneurs to nothing.
In this whole tangled story, there is one more circumstance worthy of attention.
Mr Dzhan teliyev previously held a number of responsible government positions, including the post of director of the branch of NJC «SC «Government for Citizens» for the city of Almaty from 2016 to 2018.
It was Mr Dzhan teliyev who signed the technical passport for the «Eurasia» Shopping Centre in February 2017, when the owner of the centre was Igor Ovsyannikov.
If one tries to piece the whole picture together, it turns out that Dastan Dzhan teliyev was acquainted with Mr Ovsyannikov long before the sale of the shopping centre.
After Mr Ovsyannikov's flight, the land beneath the shopping centre remained in the ownership of Eurasia LLP, while the shopping centre itself was resold multiple times for the same price, ultimately ending up in the hands of Mr Dzhan teliyev.
Why did Bank CenterCredit JSC, knowing about the illegal transactions for the resale of mortgaged property, not immediately contact the authorised bodies?
There is no doubt that in this murky affair, the interests of the victims, namely the misled entrepreneurs, were placed last.
The FBRK editorial team has sent an official request to the Prosecutor General's Office to ascertain the degree of involvement of Bank CenterCredit JSC in this convoluted case.