User:Wik8dude/sandbox
Nurzhan Subkhanberdin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Nurzhan Salkenovich Subkhanberdin 29 November 1964 |
| Nationality | Kazakhstan |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Spouse |
Zhanar Erzhanovna Abisheva
(date missing) |
| Children | 8 |
Nurzhan Salkenovich Subkhanberdin (born 29 November 1964) is a Kazakh businessman and banker. He was the founder and former Chairman of Kazkommertsbank[1][2], one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks, and is a partner in the investment company Meridian Capital together with former Kazakh Oil Minister Sauat Mynbaev[3] and former Kazkommertsbank executives Yevgeniy Feld and Askar Alshinbayev.[4] Nurzhan Subkhanberdin is one of Kazakhstan’s richest oligarchs with a fortune estimated in the billions of dollars.[5]
Biography
Subkhanberdin was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 29 November 1964. His father Salken was a writer.
He completed his education at Moscow State University from where he graduated with a degree in political economy in 1988. It is thought that he attended Moscow State University at the same time as Timur Kulibayev, who is married to the daughter of the former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Subkhanberdin is married to Zhanar Erzhanovna Abisheva and is reported to have six daughters and two sons.[1]
In 2008, with six other Kazakh businessmen, he spent $100 million on a project to open the first British private school in Central Asia, Haileybury Almaty, to get a british education for his children.[6][7]
Subkhanberdin owns luxurious real estate properties including a mansion in London and two villas that extend onto a private island on the Côte d’Azur.[5][8] He previously also owned two condos at the Mandarin Oriental Residences in New York City.[9]
Businesses
Subkhanberdin sold his stake in Kazkommertsbank and withdrawn from the board of directors of Kazkommertsbank in 2015.[10]
Almaty airport was a property of the Kazkommertsbank group of Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, the bank’s founder, and Mynbayev, and then progressively fell into the hands of the Kulibayev family.[11]
Controversies
Ermūhamet Ertısbaev interview
In 2004, when Interfax interviewed Ermūhamet Ertısbaev in November 2004, he referred to Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, chairman of Kazkommertsbank bank, as a Kazakhstani "Khodorkovsky." Ertısbaev, speaking in favor of legislation that would limit the abilities of "various elite groups" to influence politics through lobbying, told Interfax that "in the transition period, in the post-Soviet area, any attempt from the oligarchs to influence... the president, the Parliament and the government can result in serious political cataclysms." Critics, such as reporters for Respublika, said the government's de-monopolization campaign would give Kazakhstanis a chance "to see how the government will put monopolists and their protectors from the head of state's inner circle in their place."[12]
Meridian Capital controversy
In November 2017 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published an investigation into Meridian Capital based on the Paradise Papers leak. According to the OCCRP findings, in 2006 Subkhanberdin was the largest single shareholder of Meridian Capital with a 25% stake.[3]
The OCCRP investigation revealed that Meridian Capital had easy access to money from Kazkommertsbank and that “they used a large portion of deposits to fund project after project. This enabled them to grow quickly, and at little risk to themselves. According to an email from a central bank official, whenever a project failed, the bank owners and executives – who were also Meridian’s owners – would dump the losses onto the bank’s balance sheets.”[3] This practice resulted in a large portfolio of non-performing loans that generated colossal losses for Kazkommertsbank, with the bank requiring a US$ 7.5 billion bailout from the Kazakh state in 2017.[13]
In 2022 the New York Post published an article titled “How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC’s poshest pads” where it described how Meridian Capital invested its money into lavish real estate developments in Manhattan. The article quoted Jack Blum, a renowned money laundering and tax evasion expert and former US Senate staff attorney, questioning the legitimacy of Meridian Capital’s funds.[14]
References
- ^ a b "Forbes profile : Nurzhan Subkhanberdin". forbes.com. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ^ Neuman, William (21 November 2004). "Time Warner Center Draws a Diverse Global Group". nytimes.com.
- ^ a b c Miranda Patrucic, Vlad Lavrov, and Ilya Lozovsky (5 November 2017). "Kazakhstan's Secret Billionaires". occrp.org.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "offshoreleaks : Nurzhan Subkhanberdin". offshoreleaks.icij.org.
- ^ a b "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin: The most controversial oligarch you've never heard of". dispatchweekly.com. December 2022.
- ^ Auyezov, Olzhas (8 September 2008). "British school caters to children of Kazakh elite". reuters.com.
- ^ "Top 20 private schools of Nursultan and Almaty". ngs-school.kz. 1 Avril 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin's estate - on the Cote d'Azur and the size of the Vatican". kiar.center. 15 April 2021.
- ^ Hudson, Erin (25 January 2021). "Kazakh billionaire and Extell backer unloads Mandarin Oriental condos for $20M". therealdeal.com.
- ^ "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin withdraws from KKB board of directors". kaztag.kz. 6 May 2015.
- ^ Sorbello, Paolo (11 May 2020). "Kazakhstan's Richest Sell Almaty Airport". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ^ Nazarbayev seeks to close Kazakhstani political sphere by opening economy EurasiaNet
- ^ "UPDATE 1-Kazakhstan announces $7.5 bln bailout of top lender Kazkommertsbank". reuters.com. 15 March 2017.
- ^ Gould, Jennifer (13 January 2022). "How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC's poshest pads". nypost.com.