News

US District Court ruled against Ilyas Khrapunov and Viktor Khrapunov

May 19, 2020. The　United States District　Court　for the Southern District of　New York ruled in favor of BTA Bank and the Almaty Akimat (Mayor's office), imposing sanctions on Ilyas Khrapunov and Viktor Khrapunov for violating court orders, giving false testimony and intentionally destroying relevant evidence in the course of the proceedings.

Recall, the New York proceedings was instituted more than four years ago on charges of M. Ablyazov and his accomplices in laundering embezzled funds in the United States.

"The Khrapunovs' deliberate "cat-and-mouse game" with the Court in the process of disclosing evidence, and their complete contempt of court rules and their duties, led the Court to decide that such conduct was worth the punishment" - BTA reported.

The Khrapunovs, in fact, were falsifying evidence, which includes: Ilyas’s "unbelievable" excuses for lost emails, avoiding any financial reports regarding bank accounts/assets, deliberate misrepresentation of the court, allegedly not remembering certain information that was requested in the statement of claim by the plaintiffs and so on ...

Earlier in July 2019, similar sanctions were applied by the Court against M. Ablyazov, who evaded the submission of documents in the process of evidence disclosure.

On grounds of　the violations, the Court ordered Khrapunovs to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees. The court also ruled that Khrapunovs were deprived of the right to submit new documents to the court, and the jurors would be given instructions "that Ilyas intentionally destroyed the evidence that would have been supported the claims."

As found out and confirmed by various courts around the world, M. Ablyazov embezzled billions of US dollars from BTA through the issuance of fictitious loans – for which he was convicted and sentenced in Kazakhstan, as well as found guilty in the UK courts. During the proceedings in the United States, the plaintiffs provided additional substantial evidence of M. Ablyazov's crimes and provided evidence from a number of witnesses.

*****

BTA Bank

Eldar Shamsutdinov/ Head of the Press Service

Email:

Tel: +7 (777) 710 7768

Web-site: