NEW YORK -- The brother of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has filed papers in a New York City court alleging that his ex-wife and her son conspired to steal his $20 million apartment in the city's swanky Plaza Hotel.
The papers, filed on April 25 in Manhattan Supreme Court, allege that after Bolat Nazarbaev purchased the condominium in February 2008, his ex-wife, Maira Kurmangalieva, and her son Daniyar Kesikbaev, "demanded" that Bolat sign over the rights to the apartment to them.
The agreement purportedly authorized Kesikbaev to register the apartment in Nazarbaev's name without his needing to personally travel to the United States.
The court papers claim that Kesikbaev registered the apartment under both Nazarbaev and his mother's names before allegedly selling the apartment to himself for zero dollars.
New York law firm Isaacs & Associates allegedly represented Kesikbaev in the transaction.
Both the firm and the Plaza Hotel declined to comment on the case.
The court papers also allege that Kesikbaev bought two $2 million apartments on Wall Street with Nazarbaev's money. Public records list Kesikbaev at one of the two addresses.
'A Fugitive From Justice'
Nazarbaev married Kurmangalieva in 2001 and the union was annulled in 2011. He says in the court papers that he learned of the apartment scheme earlier this year. He also maintains that Kurmangalieva is a "fugitive from justice."
Nazarbaev claims his ex-wife is wanted by Interpol as well as in Kazakhstan for crimes including "kidnapping, the use of threats of physical harm to extract funds from a business associate, and using criminal threats to force another person to transfer real property to the name of a family associate."
Interpol's website does not list Kurmangalieva as wanted.
A hearing date for the case was not listed in court documents seen by RFE/RL.
In an apparently unrelated charge, Nazarbaev is also alleging that Kesikbaev was accepted to New York's prestigious Columbia University based upon "fraudulent and fabricated" school records from Kazakhstan, while he in reality attended high school in Switzerland.
In 2007, Kesikbaev and Kurmangalieva sued a company for allegedly convincing them to spend $200,000 to help secure Kesikbaev's admission to the university before they were told that he was "not Ivy League material."
They later dropped the charges.
The papers, filed on April 25 in Manhattan Supreme Court, allege that after Bolat Nazarbaev purchased the condominium in February 2008, his ex-wife, Maira Kurmangalieva, and her son Daniyar Kesikbaev, "demanded" that Bolat sign over the rights to the apartment to them.
The agreement purportedly authorized Kesikbaev to register the apartment in Nazarbaev's name without his needing to personally travel to the United States.
The court papers claim that Kesikbaev registered the apartment under both Nazarbaev and his mother's names before allegedly selling the apartment to himself for zero dollars.
New York law firm Isaacs & Associates allegedly represented Kesikbaev in the transaction.
Both the firm and the Plaza Hotel declined to comment on the case.
The court papers also allege that Kesikbaev bought two $2 million apartments on Wall Street with Nazarbaev's money. Public records list Kesikbaev at one of the two addresses.
'A Fugitive From Justice'
Nazarbaev married Kurmangalieva in 2001 and the union was annulled in 2011. He says in the court papers that he learned of the apartment scheme earlier this year. He also maintains that Kurmangalieva is a "fugitive from justice."
Nazarbaev claims his ex-wife is wanted by Interpol as well as in Kazakhstan for crimes including "kidnapping, the use of threats of physical harm to extract funds from a business associate, and using criminal threats to force another person to transfer real property to the name of a family associate."
Interpol's website does not list Kurmangalieva as wanted.
A hearing date for the case was not listed in court documents seen by RFE/RL.
In an apparently unrelated charge, Nazarbaev is also alleging that Kesikbaev was accepted to New York's prestigious Columbia University based upon "fraudulent and fabricated" school records from Kazakhstan, while he in reality attended high school in Switzerland.
In 2007, Kesikbaev and Kurmangalieva sued a company for allegedly convincing them to spend $200,000 to help secure Kesikbaev's admission to the university before they were told that he was "not Ivy League material."
They later dropped the charges.
