Timur Turlov’s Freedom Finance – deposit freezing scheme and fund transfers to offshore shell companies

Timur Turlov’s Freedom Finance – deposit freezing scheme and fund transfers to offshore shell companies

Timur Turlov, widely seen as Kazakhstan’s youngest billionaire in dollar terms, represents a new generation, though his wealth stems from more traditional methods — built with the help of backers who have reportedly siphoned billions from the public.

However, the approach is new: the oligarchy has abandoned the naive idea of the Nazarbayev era. Instead of nominal owners, it cultivates charismatic media figures with a beard like a railway station conman, a cleaned-up reputation, no significant past, and no particular preferences. Timur Turlov, a native of Tatarstan and a semi-nominal head of Freedom Finance, fits the role that was once performed by Bulat Utemuratov.

As an operational wallet, Timur Turlov has many advantages, apart from the already mentioned beard. First: his business is very murky and one of the longest-living pyramids of the former USSR. Second, Timur Turlov is personally familiar with the oligarchy of Kazakhstan and Russia and provides services to them. And most importantly — although nominal, he has access to the NASDAQ stock exchange, which makes his Freedom Finance the ideal money-laundering machine, something everyone will need in Kazakhstan 2.0, Kazakhstan 3.0, and I even think it will last until Kazakhstan 4.2, if his Freedom Finance doesn’t give its soul to God and its loans to no one.

All of Timur Turlov’s employees have been transferred from Russia. Turlov is the founder and majority shareholder of the investment group LLC IC "Freedom Finance" with the "parent company" Freedom Holding Corp. While some media outlets previously referred to Timur Turlov as just a fraudster with a Ponzi scheme, this individual now deserves much more serious attention.

Currently, despite repeatedly and publicly made promises to create jobs for the citizens of Kazakhstan, Turlov is actually reducing the number of Kazakhstani employees in his structure in favor of Russian nationals. Many who monitor the labor market know that Russians have already displaced more than half of the Kazakhstani staff in the companies owned by Turlov. This situation exists in companies that Turlov owns directly: LLC IC "Freedom Finance," JSC "Freedom Finance Bank Kazakhstan" — formerly JSC "Bank Kassa Nova," "Freedom Finance Insurance," and "Freedom Finance Life."

As well as in the companies he controls through trusted individuals — Vitaly Dyadchev and Viktor Shadrin: the publication "Kursiv," the microfinance organization "Freedom Finance Credit," the brokerage firm "Finpari," and the online securities store "Freedom24." Moreover, after Turlov announced that the Moscow office of his company Freedom Holding Corp would be completely closed, the jobs of Kazakhstanis in the companies he partially controls were also under threat: JSC "BAST," "Chocofamily Holding," "Arbuz Group," "Naimi kz," "Relog," "Cerebra." Furthermore, all management positions in Turlov’s structures are also held by Russian nationals, even in cases where this is directly prohibited by national legislation.

How do Timur Turlov, Bulat Utemuratov, and the Russians operate?

It is believed that such actions, as well as the billionaire’s overall business, which relies on illegal financial operations and resembles a financial pyramid, are only possible due to Turlov’s patrons, who are close to Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the former head of the KNB, Karim Massimov. Without such patrons, the business of the young — and Turlov is only 34 years old — Russian would not only have been unable to reach a capitalization of a billion dollars but would not have been able to exist at all on the territory of Kazakhstan.

Timur Turlov’s Freedom Finance – deposit freezing scheme and fund transfers to offshore shell companies

As is known, one of billionaire Timur Turlov’s patrons is oligarch Bulat Utemuratov — the "wallet" of Nursultan Nazarbayev. In particular, this is indicated by the deal to acquire JSC "Bank Kassa Nova" for $52 million, which is considered a sham, as the market valuation of the bank, which ranked fifteenth among all second-tier banks in Kazakhstan, was much higher. De facto, with this deal, Utemuratov transferred part of his assets to Turlov, the ultimate beneficiary of which may be directly the first president of Kazakhstan. It is no coincidence that Turlov was included in the implementation of several socially significant projects associated with the family of the former father and leader of the nation; for example, Turlov began financing the Almaty football club "Kairat" after the arrest of Kairat Boranbaev.

Turlov publicly denied purchasing the football club, but during the club’s matches on the VIP stand, where Boranbaev had previously sat, Turlov was spotted, and moreover, it was Turlov who, instead of Boranbaev, was appointed a member of the executive committee of the Kazakhstan Football Federation. Additionally, Turlov financed a memorable football tournament in honor of Nazarbayev’s nephew, Aysultan Nazarbayev, with prizes personally handed over by Dariga Nazarbayeva. He also financed a football media project and the creation of a youth football league.

It can be assumed that all these actions of Turlov are not driven by his personal love for Kazakhstani football but are dictated by the interests of the Nazarbayev family, which, hoping for a political comeback, wants to maintain control over the large army of Kazakhstani football fans. Turlov has also taken control of one of the media assets of the family of the former father and leader of the nation — "7 Kanal," which was previously financed and controlled by Alexander Klebanov, a trusted person of Dariga Nazarbayeva.

Why isn’t Timur Turlov behind bars?

All of this points to the fact that Turlov, through the investment group LLC IC "Freedom Finance" and its parent company Freedom Holding Corp, is laundering corrupt funds for the family of the first president of Kazakhstan. This is happening through a network of offshore companies in Belize, Cyprus, and the USA, as Turlov’s brokerage business was initially built on strange transactions of clients’ funds through offshore jurisdictions, followed by legalization in brokerage accounts in the US. In the US, Turlov’s goal is to acquire shares of various companies, but the shares are purchased not in the clients’ names, but through offshore companies acting as "fronts."

The convoluted scheme for acquiring shares of various companies and the fact that ordinary clients who entrusted themselves to Turlov’s business schemes are forced to comply with a 93-day ban on selling securities on both the stock and over-the-counter markets after depositing funds, has already attracted the attention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If the US were to block Turlov’s access to buying and selling securities, all his clients would be deprived of access to their funds, which would immediately lead to the collapse of the financial pyramid.

It is believed that before the tragic "January events," Timur Turlov felt quite protected due to his clients from the inner circle of Nazarbayev, who were interested in the anonymous purchase of securities in the US. However, now, although he continues to fully rely on representatives of the "old Kazakhstan," he can no longer be considered untouchable.