Nurzhan Subkhanberdin

Nurjan Salkenuly Subhanberdin (Kazakh: Нұржан Сәлкенұлы Сұбханбердин, romanized: Nurjan Sälkenuly Subhanberdin; born 29 November 1964) is a Kazakh businessman and banker. He was the founder and former chairman of Kazkommertsbank,[1][2] one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks and is a partner in the investment company Meridian Capital together with former Kazakh Oil Minister Sauat Mynbayev[3] and former Kazkommertsbank executives Yevgeniy Feld and Askar Alshinbayev.[4]

Nurzhan Subkhanberdin
Нұржан Сұбханбердин
Subkhanberdin in 2011
Born
Nurzhan Salkenovich Subkhanberdin

(1964-11-29) 29 November 1964
Almaty, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
NationalityKazakh
Alma materMoscow State University
SpouseZhanar Erzhanovna Abisheva
Children8

Subkhanberdin is one of Kazakhstan’s richest oligarchs with a fortune estimated in the billions of dollars.[5] In 2007, he was the 664 on Forbes World Billionaire list, with $1.5 billion earned in the banking industry.[6]

Early life

Subkhanberdin was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 29 November 1964.

He completed his education at Moscow State University from where he graduated with a degree in political economy in 1988. It is thought that he attended Moscow State University at the same time as Timur Kulibayev,[1] who is married to the daughter of the former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.[7]

Career

In 2008, with six other Kazakh businessmen, he spent $100 million on a project to open the first British private school in Central Asia, Haileybury Almaty, to get a British education for his children.[8][9]

In March 2011, he met with President Nursultan Nazarbayev to talk about the economy of Kazakhstan.[10]

Subkhanberdin owns luxurious real estate properties including a mansion in London and two villas that extend onto a private island on the Côte d’Azur.[5][11] He previously also owned two condos at the Mandarin Oriental Residences in New York City.[12]

Subkhanberdin sold his stake in Kazkommertsbank and withdrew from the board of directors of Kazkommertsbank in 2015.[13][14]

Almaty airport was a property of the Kazkommertsbank group of Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, the bank’s founder, and Mynbayev, and then progressively fell into the hands of the Kulibayev family.[15]

Controversies

Ermūhamet Ertısbaev interview

In 2004, when Interfax interviewed Ermūhamet Ertısbaev in November 2004, he referred Subkhanberdin as "Kazakh Khodorkovsky." Ertısbaev, speaking in favor of legislation that would limit the abilities of "various elite groups" to influence politics through lobbying, told Interfax that "in the transition period, in the post-Soviet area, any attempt from the oligarchs to influence... the president, the Parliament and the government can result in serious political cataclysms." Critics, such as reporters for Respublika, said the government's de-monopolization campaign would give Kazakhstanis a chance "to see how the government will put monopolists and their protectors from the head of state's inner circle in their place."[16]

Meridian Capital controversy

In November 2017 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published an investigation into Meridian Capital based on the Paradise Papers leak. According to the OCCRP findings, in 2006 Subkhanberdin was the largest single shareholder of Meridian Capital with a 25% stake.[3]

The OCCRP investigation revealed that Meridian Capital had easy access to money from Kazkommertsbank and that “they used a large portion of deposits to fund project after project. This enabled them to grow quickly, and at little risk to themselves. According to an email from a central bank official, whenever a project failed, the bank owners and executives – who were also Meridian’s owners – would dump the losses onto the bank’s balance sheets.”[3] This practice resulted in a large portfolio of non-performing loans that generated colossal losses for Kazkommertsbank, with the bank requiring a US$7.5 billion bailout from the Kazakh state in 2017.[17][18]

In 2022 the New York Post published an article titled “How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC’s poshest pads” where it described how Meridian Capital invested its money into lavish real estate developments in Manhattan. The article quoted Jack Blum, a renowned money laundering and tax evasion expert and former US Senate staff attorney, questioning the legitimacy of Meridian Capital’s funds.[19]

Personal life

Subkhanberdin is married to Zhanar Erzhanovna Abisheva and is reported to have six daughters and two sons.[1]

References
  1. "Forbes profile : Nurzhan Subkhanberdin". forbes.com. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  2. Neuman, William (21 November 2004). "Time Warner Center Draws a Diverse Global Group". The New York Times.
  3. Miranda Patrucic, Vlad Lavrov, and Ilya Lozovsky (5 November 2017). "Kazakhstan's Secret Billionaires". occrp.org.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. "offshoreleaks : Nurzhan Subkhanberdin". offshoreleaks.icij.org.
  5. "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin: The most controversial oligarch you've never heard of". dispatchweekly.com. December 2022.
  6. "The world's billionaires according to Forbes magazine". seattletimes.com. 9 March 2007.
  7. "Timur Kulibaev". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  8. Auyezov, Olzhas (8 September 2008). "British school caters to children of Kazakh elite". reuters.com.
  9. "Top 20 private schools of Nursultan and Almaty". ngs-school.kz. 1 April 2019.
  10. "Kazakh President received Chairman of Board of Kazkommertsbank". inform.kz. 28 March 2011.
  11. "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin's estate - on the Cote d'Azur and the size of the Vatican". kiar.center. 15 April 2021.
  12. Hudson, Erin (25 January 2021). "Kazakh billionaire and Extell backer unloads Mandarin Oriental condos for $20M". therealdeal.com.
  13. "Nurzhan Subkhanberdin withdraws from KKB board of directors". kaztag.kz. 6 May 2015.
  14. Satubaldina, Assel (1 April 2015). "KazKommertsBank names new Chairman of Directors Board and Chairman of Management Board". Tengri News. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  15. Sorbello, Paolo (11 May 2020). "Kazakhstan's Richest Sell Almaty Airport". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  16. Nazarbayev seeks to close Kazakhstani political sphere by opening economy EurasiaNet
  17. "UPDATE 1-Kazakhstan announces $7.5 bln bailout of top lender Kazkommertsbank". reuters.com. 15 March 2017.
  18. Gizitdinov, Nariman (24 April 2017). "Top Kazakh Bank on the Block for Under $1 May Need $738 Million". bloomberg.com.
  19. Gould, Jennifer (13 January 2022). "How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC's poshest pads". nypost.com.
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