The Union of Foreign Media and Reporters — The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has published an investigation based on a leak of correspondence relating to the Swiss bank Reyl.
According to the Telegram channel «RESPUBLIKA.KZ.media», the documents contain correspondence between the bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The correspondence concerns an investigation the regulator conducted into «weaknesses in the area of money laundering» and alleged failings in handling high-risk accounts.
It is reported that FINMA examined the bank's activities in relation to several accounts opened in the names of representatives of the political elites of certain countries.
According to OCCRP journalists, among the bank's clients are the daughter of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Dinara Kulibayeva, and the son-in-law of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Timur Tilliyaev. A Swiss asset manager who handled companies owned by the children of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is also mentioned.
It has emerged that in May 2024, FINMA demanded that Reyl bank hand over client files relating to Dinara Kulibayeva's account, as well as the account of the Luxembourg company Regulus Holdings SA, of which Kulibayeva is the beneficiary. According to the correspondence, this company received a loan of €25 million from the bank to purchase property in France.
It is noted that in April 2023, criminal proceedings were initiated against Kulibayeva in Switzerland. This occurred after Reyl bank filed a suspicious activity report regarding her accounts with the Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office.
Kulibayeva's lawyer, Jean-Christophe Hock, stated in a comment to the OCCRP that his client had always cooperated with local authorities, providing documents confirming the source of the funds she used to acquire Swiss property.
«Our client's public wealth is based on her stake in Halyk Bank, a regulated financial institution in Kazakhstan listed on the London Stock Exchange. The same applies to the funds deposited with Reyl», the lawyer said.
It is reported that despite the freezing of Kulibayeva's accounts in April 2023, in May of the same year, Swiss prosecutors granted permission for a transaction worth 650,000 francs ($760,500) to cover her personal expenses.