Viktor Khrapunov

Khrapunov Viktor Vyacheslavovich was born on November 24, 1948.

Family: Wife - Leyla Kalibekovna Khrapunova, former owner of the Viled group of companies, founder of the non-governmental non-profit institution Almaty Economic University. Daughters: Galina Khrapunova, Elena Khrapunova, Elvira Khrapunova-Belmadani. Sons: Ilyas Khrapunov, Daniel Khrapunov.

He graduated from the Ust-Kamenogorsk Industrial College, Almaty Energy Institute, Almaty Higher Party School. Received a Doctors degree in Economic Sciences.

Labor activity: He began his work experience with work as an on-duty locksmith. He was a repairman, a shift foreman, a foreman, a senior process engineer of the PTO, a deputy head of the boiler shop, a head of the turbine shop of the Almaty CHPP; chief engineer of the Almaty enterprise of thermal networks; Chairman of the Leninsky District Executive Committee; second secretary of the Almaty City Party Committee; First Deputy Chairman of the Almaty City Council - Chairman of the City Executive Committee; First Deputy Head of the Almaty City Administration; Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

From 1997 to 2004 – Akim of Almaty.
From 2004 to 2007 – Akim of the East Kazakhstan region.
From January to November 2007 – Minister of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

He was dismissed at the suggestion of Prime Minister Karim Massimov in connection with the illegal allocation of land in the water protection areas of Almaty, for violations when he was akim, after a scandal with illegal building foothills.

Until 2007, Viktor Khrapunov did not think of any opposition. And he certainly did not consider himself persecuted by the authorities when he was in charge, first in Almaty, then in East Kazakhstan, and just before fleeing the country, in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Khrapunov has been the akim of Almaty since 1997. Under him, the city was flooded with fixed-route taxis, with which the akim later began a real struggle – the emergency situation worsened at times due to ignoring the rules of the road drivers of the "minibuses". Khrapunov was remembered by Almaty residents for the massive "cleansing" of the city from commercial kiosks, and broken roads, and the appearance of the first elite high-rise buildings.

Under Khrapunov, the townspeople did not wait for a single metro line. But they could lose the opportunity to travel in right-hand drive cars: it was the Almaty akim who suggested the idea of banning Japanese cars. Data of mythical statistics were cited, according to which, right-hand drive cars more often became participants in an accident.

However, this type of transport was the most accessible for ordinary Kazakhstanis, and therefore Khrapunov's decision, not only did not find support in society, but also caused mass discontent. Motorists created various communities, wrote to the media and high-ranking officials, and went to rallies. Gradually, the situation seemed to calm down by itself.

But forever the name of Viktor Khrapunov entered the history of Almaty in connection with the situation around the airport, whose building burned down in July 1999. The official version of the Agency for Emergency Situations, which was then headed by Shalbay Kulmakhanov, came down to the fact that an ordinary deep fryer became the cause of the fire. In the process of cooking, it flared up, the oil that was in it spilled and began to burn, the parquet caught fire, and the burning oil spread further. As a result, a terminal with an area of almost 9,000 m² burned down.

Meanwhile, the fire broke out three months after the re-registration of the airport, which became known as OJSC Almaty International Airport. And few people believed in the version with a deep fryer. The flames were spreading too fast and the airport security services were somehow suspiciously slow. And then strange things began to happen.

In December 2003, OJSC Imstalcon, which was building a new terminal, received the right to dispose of premises with an area of 2481.92 m². Allegedly for debts to the company. A later audit showed that no debts existed. More precisely, Imstalcon itself owed more than half a billion tenge. It also turned out that the contractor received a huge advance payment without taking into account the work done.

The transfer of the premises to Imstalcon took place on December 30, 2003, and already on December 31, the JSC transferred the terminal area and a land plot of 8 hectares to LLP "Kazan So", which, in turn, alienated this property to a number of legal entities and individuals in 2004.

Another curious detail: in November 2001, airport activities were withdrawn from Almaty International Airport OJSC. Together with 68% of the company's assets, it was transferred to another company – International Airport OJSC.

Meanwhile, the construction of the terminal was delayed. Khrapunov's promise to hand over the new passenger terminal by December 16, 2001 remained unfulfilled.

In early January 2002, at a press conference, he blamed the general contractor, the Imstalcon company, for everything. However, according to Khrapunov, in July-August 2002 the airport will certainly be commissioned.

But in the spring of the same year, the Proektstalkonstruktsiya institute made scandalous accusations, which stated that the airport building under construction is seismically unstable. Immediately followed by a refutation of the Kazakh Research Institute of Seismic Construction. While we were investigating this issue, we missed another deadline. The Akimat again promised that construction would be completed by December 16, 2002. But this deadline was also broken.

Soon "Almaty International Airport" and JSC "International Airport" were merged. And the akimat outlined new deadlines: December 16, 2003. At the grand opening of the terminal with the participation of Nursultan Nazarbayev, it turned out that the new building serves only the Almaty-Astana route and only one airline – Air Astana. Other passengers were forced to continue using the adapted room.

Other facts have come to light. It turned out that the new terminal cost the city and Kazkommertsbank, which co-financed the construction, not $24 million, as it was supposed by the project, but $52 million. areas.

Since the end of the 90s, when Viktor Khrapunov took the chair of the mayor, self-occupation of plots and independent development began on the outskirts of Almaty. Then these lands were not yet officially within the city limits, they were located at the junction of the Almaty region and the metropolis.

With the arrival of Imangali Tasmagambetov as akim, an incredible picture opened up: the squatters turned out to be not squatters at all. They presented the new city authorities with quite official acts of purchase and sale or lease of plots and permits for their development. Including in water protection zones and where potentially dangerous networks lie, including gas pipelines.

This is how the microdistricts "Shanyrak", "Bokay" and the like appeared. The events that took place there in the middle of the 2000s are well known, and the organizer of the then unrest, the guardian of the rights of squatters, Aron Atabek, is still serving a prison term.

Famous journalist Gennady Benditsky devoted more than one article to the "exploits" of the Almaty akim Khrapunov. His materials reported how lands were impudently confiscated for state needs, how people were deprived of their property with one stroke of the pen.

Another important episode in the life of Khrapunov, mayor of Almaty, is associated with the activities of the Belgian company Tractebel, which received a solid piece in the Almaty energy network – a local thermal power plant. The transaction itself took place during the Kazakh privatization, which was carried out not for vouchers, as in Russia or Eastern Europe, but by attracting foreign investors. They took over the management of domestic enterprises, but in return they were obliged to carry out modernization.

But in the case of Traktebel, the investor forced the population of the city to pay regularly and reduced his activities not to modernizing the enterprise and reducing the cost of energy, but to increasing its price. Tariffs were systematically growing, but the proceeds went in an unknown direction.

No less interesting is the story of the illegal distribution of real estate and land plots in Almaty. So, one of the most famous objects was the building of the former children's kindergarten No. 186, which was privatized in April 2001 by the decision of Akim Khrapunov. And it became the property of his wife Leila. Acting according to a pre-worked out scheme, the object was subsequently put up for sale, as a result of which the Khrapunov couple received about 288 million tenge at their disposal.

During the period from 2002 to 2003, the former mayor of Almaty illegally sold more than fifty land plots for outdoor advertising.

Having become the akim of the East Kazakhstan region, Viktor Khrapunov "brought" with him to the region, the schemes of redistribution of land plots worked out in Almaty. For a long time, local entrepreneurs recalled how the akimat sold them buildings that were state property.

All transactions for the acquisition of property were carried out strictly according to the law, but no one told the merchants that the buildings, at that time, belonged to the state and should not have been sold. As a result, the regional prosecutor's office recognized the transactions for the acquisition of objects as illegal, and the regional court ordered the entrepreneurs to return the objects to state property.

But that was much later. Meanwhile, in January 2007, Khrapunov became the Minister for Emergency Situations. True, already at the end of October, the head of the government, Karim Massimov, proposed to dismiss Viktor Khrapunov and the chairman of the Agency for Land Resources Management, Bakhyt Ospanov, in connection with the illegal allocation of land plots in the water protection areas of Almaty.

He also instructed to dismiss the deputies of the akim of the city of Almaty Yakov Zayats and Kairat Bukenov, as well as the deputies of the akim of the Almaty region Alikhan Toibayev, the akim of the Talgar district of the Almaty region Kenzhebek Omarbaev and the deputy akim of the Talgar district Kalimoldu Baibolov, the akim of the Karasai district of the Almaty region Bulatbek Kutpanov, the correspondent reports agencies.

Massimov also instructed the akims of Almaty and the Almaty region to "eliminate all the shortcomings associated with the illegal development of Almaty and the Almaty region."

Ex-akim Khrapunov calmly retired and in April 2008 "emigrated" to Switzerland. And he made himself known only after the flight from Kazakhstan of his matchmaker – Mukhtar Ablyazov. Khrapunov began to complain about human rights violations in his homeland.

And in 2013, he published in France the book "Nazarbayev votre ami le dictateur" (in Russian it was published under the title "I accuse! About the dictatorship of Nursultan Nazarbayev"), which, as Khrapunov's wife Leyla wrote, denounces the "corrupt form of government" of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

And here is the time to remember the second half of the former head of Almaty – Leyla Kalibekovna.

In 2012, a former employee of Leyla Khrapunova, who worked for several years in one of her business structures, told reporters about how the Khrapunovs lived and worked when their head was the mayor of Almaty.

When Khrapunov was removed from the post of akim of Almaty, the couple immediately applied a special scheme by opening the Phoenix company in Switzerland.

He claimed that Viktor Khrapunov was directly related to his wife's entire business: in each of her offices, she arranged work rooms for him.

And when all the deeds of her husband began to emerge, Leyla Khrapunova moved the property acquired by overwork to abroad. And when selling her business in Kazakhstan, she didn't lose at all, as she claimed, but on the contrary, she made good money.

In August 2018, Ainakul Sadykbayeva, who in the early 2000s worked as the chief accountant at LLP Viled Almaty, was in the dock, since 2003 she has been the chief accountant at LLP KazRealincom. The founder of both companies at that time was Leyla Khrapunova.

As the defendant explained, the wife of the ex-akim in those years appointed her as a nominal director of the company.

According to Sadykbayeva, Khrapunova repeatedly invited her to her office and forced her to sign certain documents for the purchase and sale of real estate and other objects. The woman was obliged to do this because they had her data as a leader.

Sadykbayeva took part in the signing of protocols and agreements in the case of "Billboards", "Polyclinic of WWII Veterans", to the companies LLP "Victoria-KMK" and LLP "Ademytau-KMK", as well as "CAI-Kazakhstan".

Defendant Abylaikhan Karymsakov has been working with Leyla Khrapunova since 1995. Then, she headed her private television company "Tan" and offered him the position of deputy for general affairs. He also told the court, that he personally, nominally headed five of Khrapunova's companies.

In 2010, the children of Viktor Khrapunov entered the list of the three hundred richest residents of Switzerland. This was reported by the Russian-language edition of Nasha Gazeta, which is published in Geneva. According to journalists, Ilyas Khrapunov's fortune amounted to ₣350 million – about $343 million. And his sister Elvira Khrapunova-Beldimani owned a jewelry boutique and a villa in the fashionable quarter of Geneva.

In 2014, the son of Viktor Khrapunov, Ilyas, was put on the international wanted list. He was charged with the creation of an organized crime group, participation in a criminal community and the legalization of money and property acquired illegally.

Ilyas Khrapunov and his wife, Mukhtar Ablyazov's daughter Madina Khrapunova, ended up on the diplomatic list of the UN permanent diplomatic mission in one of the African republics. According to the document, Ilyas was listed as an adviser to the diplomatic mission in the Central African Republic.

At the end of 2013, Ilyas Khrapunov sold the shares of the Swiss Development Group, which he founded, which was engaged in the construction of hotels, spa resorts and residential complexes in Switzerland.

In 2017, a Kazakh court considered an episode about issuing a multibillion-dollar loan to Mukhtar Ablyazov's Building Service Company, which he acquired from the Khrapunov family.

In October 2003, Leyla Khrapunova sold a 100% stake in LLP Building Service Company, and withdrew the proceeds to Swiss banks in the name of her daughter Elvira. The next actual owner of the company was Mukhtar Ablyazov.

The amount of this family transaction, according to the investigation, amounted to more than 2 billion tenge. Over time, Ablyazov began to divide the capital of the Building Service Company between other affiliated companies, which subsequently received multimillion-dollar loans from BTA Bank, which were never returned.

In 2007, according to the scheme worked out in BTA, an application was drawn up from LLP Building Service Company for opening a credit line in the amount of $45 million. Naturally, there were no problems with its approval. The Credit Committee did not conduct examinations, did not check the borrower and his credit history. The bank employees knew perfectly well who the actual owner of the borrowing company was, so the decision was made promptly.

Soon, the funds allocated by BTA began to flow into the account of the Building Service Company, but there was no return on them. The stolen money was legalized by Ablyazov and spent for personal purposes.

In 2018, the UK Supreme Court ruled that Ilyas Khrapunov helped Mukhtar Ablyazov embezzle money from BTA Bank and ordered the bank to pay $500 million.

As American Newsweek wrote, Ilyas Khrapunov colluded with the former chairman of BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov, assisting him in stealing $6 billion. Court documents indicated that the money may have been laundered through President Donald Trump's real estate empire, the newspaper wrote.

The court decision stated that Ilyas Khrapunov helped his father-in-law withdraw some of the money from the frozen accounts, enlisting the help of a professional English accountant familiar with the work of offshore companies.

Ablyazov also enlisted the support of Ilyas Khrapunov to launder money through major real estate projects in the US and Europe. According to reports, Ilyas Khrapunov bought 3 apartments in the Trump SoHo Hotel in New York (a development project of Donald Trump and Bayrock Group LLC) and soon resold them.

In 2019, Ilyas Khrapunov was accused of destroying evidence in a money laundering case, including the purchase of apartments in the Trump SoHo tower.

Reportedly, the destroyed records were most likely related to the sale of a stake in the Flatotel project to the Chetrit Group. According to BTA Bank, the deleted email accounts likely contained messages about one of the central issues in this case – why the defendants sold their stake in the ChetritGroup's Flatotel project in midtown Manhattan at below market price.

The sale, orchestrated by Ilyas Khrapunov and Nicholas Burg, a former director of Triadou, had previously been ruled by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan as the cause of the lawsuit. In addition, it was noted that Khrapunov Jr. tried to hide a key witness, who was eventually located in California and questioned.

Ilyas Khrapunov has previously stated that he legally managed his family's investments and denied that SDGCapitalSA, Triadou's parent company, was his father-in-law's shell company and that he was laundering any illegal proceeds. At the same time, Andrew Solomon, Khrapunov's lawyer, denied that his clients had done anything illegal.

On September 3, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued another ruling against Ilyas and Viktor Khrapunov imposing a fine for violating the court order.

Judge Katherine Parker concluded that the Khrapunovs violated numerous legal obligations, deliberately destroyed evidence and falsely testified that they did not have access to certain documents.

The US court also "found that the Khrapunovs violated certain court rulings in this case, including a ban on unauthorized dissemination of confidential testimony by Ilyas Khrapunov."

In October 2018, Viktor Khrapunov was convicted in absentia of the crimes committed: embezzlement of state property, fraud, abuse of power, taking bribes and legalization of stolen property committed by organized crime groups. The damage caused to the state exceeded $250 million.

He was sentenced to 17 years in prison to be served in the penitentiary system of maximum security, with confiscation of property, and deprivation of the right to hold positions in the National Bank, financial institutions, government organizations and other institutions.

Leyla Khrapunova was sentenced to 14 years in prison, son-in-law Aiyar Ilyasov received 5 years.

In the case of the Khrapunovs, more than 200 witnesses appeared, the case materials consisted of 400 volumes. In addition to the main defendants, there were 9 people in the dock, who had previously worked in state institutions and in controlled companies of the Khrapunovs.

In January 2021, Viktor Khrapunov received political asylum. This was stated by his wife Leila.

She clarified that the journalist of the main Swiss news publication Tages-Anzeiger, Markus Haefliger, published a detailed article on the pages of the newspaper about the long-term vicissitudes of recognizing political status in the Khrapunovs' case.

However, in its ruling, the Federal Administrative Court did not rule out the possibility that the criminal proceedings initiated against the Khrapunovs in Kazakhstan and in other countries in connection with possible property crimes allegedly committed by them may be well-founded.

In Switzerland, the criminal case against Viktor Khrapunov, initiated in 2012 in connection with possible money laundering, was dismissed in November 2019.