NUR-SULTAN -- A special commission in Kazakhstan created last month to track down and repatriate funds allegedly stolen by former President Nursultan Nazarbaev's relatives and associates announced it recovered some 230 billion tenges ($478 million).
The commission said on July 18 that the Prosecutor-General's Office would be taking control of some of its most high-profile investigations.
Those include probes launched against Nazarbaev's arrested nephew Qairat Satybaldy and his ex-wife Gulmira Satybaldy; the former father-in-law of Nazarbaev's granddaughter, Qairat Boranbaev; and leaders of the Operator ROP company linked to Nazarbaev's youngest daughter, Aliya Nazarbaeva, as well as the former chief of the Central Asian nation's Committee of National Security Karim Masimov and his three former deputies.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said on June 5, when Kazakhstan held a referendum on constitutional amendments to formally remove Nazarbaev and his associates from the political scene, that he created the 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."
SEE ALSO: Corruption Island: The Lavish Properties Of Former Kazakh Leader Nazarbaev And His FamilyNazarbaev resigned as president in 2019 after ruling the oil-rich nation with an iron fist for almost three decades. He picked longtime ally Toqaev as his successor but retained sweeping powers as the head of the Security Council, enjoying the powers as elbasy, or leader of the nation. Many of his relatives continued to hold important posts in the government, security agencies, and profitable energy groups.
Toqaev started distancing himself from Nazarbaev after nationwide protests in early January turned violent and left 232 people dead. The protests started over a fuel price hike and spread across Kazakhstan amid widespread discontent over the cronyism that has long plagued the country. Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of the Security Council role, taking it over himself.
Just days after the protests, Nazarbaev's two sons-in-law, Qairat Sharipbaev and Dimash Dosanov, were pushed out of top jobs at two major state companies, QazaqGaz and KazTransOil, respectively.
Timur Kulibaev, Nazarbaev's billionaire son-in-law, also resigned as chairman of the oil-rich nation's main business lobby group, while in late February, Nazarbaev's eldest daughter, Darigha Nazarbaeva, said that she was giving up her parliamentary seat.
Since then, several other relatives and those close to the family have been pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some have been arrested on corruption charges.