NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh anti-corruption officials have closed their investigation into the detained nephew of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, accusing him of embezzling millions from state telecom and transport companies.
The case against Qairat Satybaldy, who was arrested in March and remains in custody pending trial, is the latest in a series of investigations targeting relatives and allies of Nazarbaev.
In a statement on August 24, the Anti-Corruption Agency said that Satybaldy and four other unnamed individuals are suspected of embezzling an unspecified amount of money from Kazakhtelecom and Transport Service Center companies.
The agency also said that $500 million had been returned back to the state treasury and 29 percent of Kazakhtelecom's shares, which had been controlled by Satybaldy, were taken back under state control.
No date has been set for his trial.
Satybaldy's former wife, Gulmira, was also arrested in March on charges of embezzlement and the illegal takeover of a private business.
After unprecedented anti-government protests in early January, the Kazakh government began quietly targeting Nazarbaev, his family, and other allies -- many of whom held powerful or influential posts in government, security agencies, and profitable energy companies.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, whom Nazarbaev hand-picked as successor after stepping down in 2019, started distancing himself from Nazarbaev after the January unrest, which was fueled by Kazakhs’ disgust at cronyism and corruption.
Toqaev stripped Nazarbaev of the sweeping powers he had retained as the head of the Security Council after he stepped down as president.
Just days after the protests, two of Nazarbaev’s sons-in-law were pushed out of top jobs at two major oil and gas companies.
Another son-in-law, Timur Kulibaev, resigned as chairman of the country’s main business lobby group, while in late February, Nazarbaev's eldest daughter, Darigha, was forced to give up her parliamentary seat.
Authorities also launched probes against the former father-in-law of Nazarbaev's late grandson, and leaders of a company linked to Nazarbaev's youngest daughter Aliya.
Officials also targeted the former chief of the Committee of National Security and his three former deputies.
In June, Toqaev said he had created a commission to "return cash illegally taken out of Kazakhstan" by "a narrow circle of people who had illegally taken over the larger portion of the country’s wealth."