Aliyev’s assets frozen by court order

Malta Today reports that Rakhat Aliyev, formerly the son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, is also being investigated by Austrian prosecutors on the murder of two bankers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2008.

The Criminal Court has issued a freezing order on the assets owned by Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev, in the first confirmed action that the embattled millionaire was being investigated over money laundering.

The freezing order was issued against Aliyev, 52, and his Austrian wife Elnara Shorazova, and a host of companies he is connected to.

The freezing order has been communicated to Banif Bank and Bank of Valletta, as well as the inland revenue and VAT departments, the public registry and the financial services authority, Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries and Iuris Fiduciaries.

The order prohibits Aliyev and his wife Elnara Shorazova, and the companies mentioned, from transferring or otherwise disposing of any movable or immovable property.

Aliyev, formerly the son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev and deputy head of the Kazakh secret service, is also being investigated by Austrian prosecutors on the murder of two bankers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2008. The Maltese money laundering investigations only add to similar investigations in Krefeld, Germany.

Austrian connections

According to the freezing order, Aliyev is also connected to two companies set up with an address at Pendergardens, in St Julian's - Bongu Media Malta and Malta Press Agency.

Malta Press Agency Ltd is owned by Liliya Rakhmatullina, who is a director on another company A.V. Maximus Holding AG in Vienna. This company already features in money laundering investigations in Germany, as having been used as a channel for illegal monies to flow to subsidiaries Armoreal GmbH and S.T.A.R.T. Managementconsulting GmbH.

Bongu Media Malta is then owned by Kathleen Narodetsky, while her husband and journalist Alexander Narodetsky owns a 1% shareholding - both are based in Leeds, UK. Narodestky was once a director of the United States Congress funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kiev (known as Radio Svoboda), in the Ukraine.

Trusts connected to Aliyev

Another company whose assets have been frozen are Olympic Yachting Limited - possibly used as the owner of his personal yacht - whose shareholder is Ganado Trustees & Fiduciaries.

Other companies are AJ Trust, Sydney Trust, and Athina Trust of Malta; and Acquarius Trust Company Limited and Aurelius Holdings Limited of Gibraltar; and EDS Holdings Ltds and Crimson Limited.

Investigation

In 2013, complaints submitted to both the Viennese prosecutor and the Maltese police, seen for the first time by MaltaToday, revealed a network of companies connected to Aliyev. According to Austrian lawyers Lansky Ganzger Partner, the money was laundered from alleged criminal activity, but MaltaToday cannot substantiate this claim.

The lawyers mapped out a complex network of transaction flows: in the first step, money was fed via two offshore companies, AV Maximus SA and Argocom Ltd into another company, A.V. Maximus Holding AG. That money was then channelled into subsidiaries Armoreal GmbH and S.T.A.R.T. Managementconsulting GmbH.

In the second step, loans were granted between the subsidiaries, with large amounts going to the German company Metallwerke Bender Rheinland.

In the third step, the money flowed back to A.V. Maximus SA or, via A.V. Maximus Holding AG, to Maltese and Caribbean enterprises.

The Austrian A.V. Maximus Holding was owned by a Maltese company, A & P Power Ltd, which was itself owned by A + P Power Holdings Ltd, registered in the Caribbean island of Nevis.

A & P Power Ltd, whose official purpose was indicated as rendering aeronautics services, was used by Shorazova to transfer the sum of €2.4 million from Austria to Malta. In 2009 it had assets of just €300, incurring a loss of €2,100 in 2010.

Now seated at the address of Joseph Giglio's law firm, A & P Power has been renamed Zurich Asset Management Ltd.

Berlin lawyers Danckert Spiller Richter Bärlein, acting on behalf of the Kazakh ministry of justice, also filed its own report to the Maltese Attorney General.

In their dossier, DSRB claimed that Aliyev shifted to Malta over €100 million in alleged "criminal gains" during his time as deputy head of the Kazakh secret service.

Again, MaltaToday has been unable to substantiate these allegations, although they have not been rebutted by Maltese investigators so far.

On the Trail of Rakhat Aliyev

"On the Trail of Rakhat Aliyev" – a two-part mini-documentary by Mauro Baldelli

Part 1

Part 2

“Torture Allegations Against Rakhat Aliyev,” by MaltaToday.com.mt

Who needs horror movies when life is full of real horror stories?

Anastasiya’s Story

Anastasiya and her baby daughter Luiza, before Luiza was kidnapped from her mother in early 2004. This is the last known photo of Anastasiya Novikova while she was alive.

Anastasiya Novikova, born of Russian parents in 1980, was a hopeful young woman who moved from her native Uzbekistan to attend school and find opportunities in Kazakhstan, Central Asia.

With her long blond hair and cheerful features, Anastasiya landed a dream job as a news reader for one of Kazakhstan’s major television channels, NTK.

There, the attractive young woman came to the attention of NTK’s owner, billionaire Rakhat Aliyev.

Nearly twenty years her senior and with unparalleled political connections, Aliyev promised to liberate Anastasiya from obscurity and help her see the world. He brought her with him to Vienna, Austria, where he would serve twice as ambassador.

Forced to marry a cousin to conceal her pregnancy

But Aliyev was married to the daughter of the President of Kazakhstan. He couldn’t make his affair public.

After he impregnated Anastasiya, he forced her to marry his cousin, a subordinate in Kazakhstan’s diplomatic service named Daniyar Esten. Esten would pretend that the baby was his.

As Anastasiya became more visibly pregnant in Vienna, Aliyev knew she would become a problem. He had to get her out of Austria and out of sight. That meant sending her to a place where she could disappear while he continued his sexual relations with her.

Captivity in Beirut

Thanks to shady connections in Beirut, Aliyev arranged for Anastasiya and her “husband” to move there and live with a senior Kazakhstani diplomat for eight months. Aliyev’s sister lived in Beirut, married to a Lebanese Kazakh who, as his brother-in-law, gave Aliyev and his enforcers a local Arabic-speaking support network. Aliyev’s brother-in-law was Issam Salah Hourani.

Anastasiya was captive in the Lebanese capital. She had no money. No way to travel on her own. She was completely cut off from her family and friends.

Her baby daughter, Luiza, was born at that time. As the pictures show, Anastasiya found comfort in her new baby girl – and with a local man who took an interest in her. To punish Anastasiya for “cheating” on him, Aliyev had Luiza taken away.

Brutalized in the Houranis’ apartment

Anastasiya was transferred to an apartment owned by Aliyev’s Lebanese brother-in-law, Issam Salah Hourani, and Hourani’s brother, Devincci. Issam Hourani’s sister had been with Anastasiya during Luiza’s birth. Now, Aliyev instructed the sister to be responsible for baby Luiza, and raise her as a member of the Aliyev family. Esten lived with her, but forbade her to venture outside alone. A special lock on the front required a key to enter or exit. Anastasiya was a prisoner.

Anastasiya Novikova’s tragic story played out to the end in that apartment.

How She Was Murdered

Anastasiya Novikova and her baby daughter Luiza, in Beirut, September 2003. Anastasiya sent this photo to members of her family.

In the spring of 2004, as further punishment for “cheating” on him after taking away her baby, witnesses say, Rakhat Aliyev severely beat Anastasiya in the Beirut apartment owned by the Houranis.

Witnesses have testified that Aliyev had Anastasiya’s wrists tied to hooks mounted to the walls, and used ropes as a form of crucifixion. Witnesses say he whipped her, broke her ribs, left bruises all over her body, and raped her. Sometimes Anastasiya was handcuffed to brackets attached to the walls.

With her “husband” Esten’s acquiescence, a mattress was placed against the bedroom window and secured with duct tape to muffle the sounds from inside, and to block out the light from outside.

Drugged and abused

To keep her quiet, Aliyev injected Anastasiya with ketonal, also known as Ketoprofen, a painkiller for humans if administered in pill form, but intended for horses if administered as an injection. He instructed an underling in how to inject Anastasiya daily.

Anastasiya pleaded to be reunited with her little girl. Another Aliyev subordinate at the Kazakhstan Embassy in Beirut finally coordinated the visits through Aliyev’s brother-in-law, Issam Hourani, an owner of the apartment whose sister reportedly was raising the child.

While Anastasiya was able to see her baby again, her very presence became an increasing problem. Aliyev ordered a subordinate to give her a different drug, this time in tablet form. Her “husband” Esten administered them as well. The tablets made Anastasiya drowsy and passive. Soon the pills made her physically ill – but she was becoming addicted and craved them.

The subordinate says he told Aliyev about her worsening condition, but Aliyev ordered him to give her more, and later, after she was addicted, to cut her off.

Aliyev had once told an associate that he wanted her to take a medication that would cause her to gain weight, and make her unattractive.

The Beirut apartment building where Anastasiya was held captive and hurled to her death. This photo is from the Lebanese authorities’ 2004 report.

‘Biggest problem’

Later that spring, when Anastasiya ventured outside on her own, Esten locked her up again in the apartment, this time shackling her in the bedroom.

Witnesses say another Aliyev subordinate shaved off her long, beautiful blond hair as punishment, and left the cuttings on the urine-stained floor as a further insult.

Anastasiya was, according to a witness, the “biggest problem” for Aliyev’s Beirut-based brother-in-law. Something had to be done.

Finally, on June 19, 2004, the terribly abused young mother was hurled from her apartment prison to her death.

Her dead body was found impaled on iron reinforcement rods atop a concrete fence that rose beneath the apartment.

Within three days, with pressure on Lebanese authorities from Aliyev’s subordinates in the Kazakhstan embassy, Anastasiya’s remains were cleared to be flown to Kazakhstan for burial.

The balcony from where Anastasiya was thrown to her death. The apartment was owned by Rakhat Aliyev’s brother-in-law, Issam Hourani, and Issam’s brother, Devincci Hourani. Photo is from Lebanese police investigators.

How did Anastasiya Novikova die?

Medical examiners said Anastasiya’s broken bones were consistent with a 9-story fall, but forensic evidence did not prove she was murdered.  Saying they found no evidence of a struggle, medical examiners ruled her death – tentatively – as a suicide.

A local security guard told authorities that he saw a Russian man with greenish eyes enter the apartment at the time of Anastasiya’s death. The description fit the appearance of the Aliyev subordinate who had shaved her head as punishment, and who later shipped Anastasiya’s body out of the country.

One of Aliyev’s associates in Beirut told authorities that, on hearing the news of Anastasiya’s death, Aliyev had instructed him to tell people that the young woman had drowned in the bathtub.

Esten had a more plausible answer. Anastasiya, he said, suffered from psychological disorders caused by sexual abuse from her childhood, and she killed herself. With Aliyev’s brother-in-law serving as his Arabic-language translator with authorities, Aliyev’s cousin Esten said explicitly that he wanted no criminal investigation into the death of the mother of Aliyev’s child.

Urgency to fly the Anastasiya’s remains from Beirut – without telling her family

But the Lebanese authorities placed Esten under investigation anyway and took his passport.

Apparently at Aliyev’s instruction, the Kazakhstan Embassy in Beirut pressured Lebanese authorities to release Anastasiya’s body soon after it was embalmed for transport, and certified that Esten would cooperate if they would return his passport so he could leave Lebanon with the body for burial in Kazakhstan.

However, Anastasiya Novikova had no family in Kazakhstan. She was not a citizen of Kazakhstan, but of Uzbekistan, where she was born. Nobody – not even her “husband” Esten – informed her parents or brother of her death.

Before the initial five-day investigation of Esten was completed, Esten a boarded the private jet to Kazakhstan chartered by Vadim Koshlyak, the Aliyev aide who had shaved Anastasiya’s head.

With Esten and Koshlyak aboard, the chartered plane flew to a remote part of Kazakhstan’s broad steppe, where Anastasiya’s broken body was hauled overland to a freshly dug grave in an otherwise abandoned cemetery, and secretly buried.

Then Aliyev’s cousin Esten, his aide Koshlyak, and the others left aboard the chartered plane, and nothing more was said.

The following year, in 2005, Esten was killed in a mysterious traffic accident in Austria.

Aliyev become prime suspect

Two years later, Anastasiya’s body was discovered at the remote abandoned cemetery. Kazakhstani authorities identified the remains and notified Anastasiya’s grieving family. Anastasiya’s mother pieced together the evidence and found a lawyer who could help her back in Beirut. She successfully petitioned Lebanese authorities to open a criminal murder investigation into her daughter’s death.

The prime suspect was Rakhat Aliyev.

Justice For Novikova Website

JusticeForNovikova.com was launched to mark the 10^th anniversary of the murder of Anastasiya Novikova, a young mother who was murdered after bearing the child of the man she loved.

About Anastasiya Novikova: She viewed that man, Rakhat Aliyev, as an accomplished businessman and one of his country’s senior diplomats. In reality, Aliyev abused his authority to become an internationally wanted criminal.

After Aliyev surrendered to Austrian authorities on charges of murder and other crimes in 2014, some of us who were moved by Anastasiya’s tragic story began the #JusticeForNovikova campaign.

Because of the brutality of Aliyev and his accomplices who remain at large, we are fearful of identifying ourselves in public. But we do have the public support of members of Anastasiya’s family, including her father.

Our growing strength will be in our numbers and our international solidarity. We invite you to join us in seeking justice for Anastasiya Novikova, her daughter, and all victims of Rakhat Aliyev and his criminal gang.

Who is Rakhat Aliyev?

Rakhat Aliyev is wanted under an Interpol warrant for multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes. He hid in Malta, Cyprus and the Palestinian Territories. But the gangster tycoon, former head of the Kazakh secret service and twice-former Kazakh Ambassador to Austria, has friends who have been helping him avoid extradition. Aliyev must be stopped.

Aliyev's former associates say he got his thrills from torturing people. He rendered them helpless, bound them in shackles, stretched them on a rack, and crucified one with rope and hooks.

They say he enjoyed whipping, applying electric shocks, breaking bones, and inflicting psychological torture on those who displeased him.

The summary below is taken from a more extensive site about this man, RakhatAliyev.com.

Кому нужны фильмы ужасов, когда реальная жизнь полна ими?

Кому нужны фильмы ужасов, когда реальная жизнь полна ими? Возьмём для примера историю Анастасиии Новиковой - молодой матери, убитой человеком, которого она когда-то любила и от которого родила дочку.

Анастасия Новикова и дочь Луиза, незадолго до их насильственной разлуки. Это последняя известная фотография Анастасии перед её убийством в июне 2004 г.

Она знала Рахата Алиева, как успешного бизнесмена и видного дипломата. На самом же деле, Алиев злоупотреблял своим высоким положением, став преступником и убийцей в международном розыске .

После того как в 2014 году Алиев сдался австрийским властям по обвинению в убийстве и других преступлениях, те из нас, кого трагическая история Анастасии не оставила равнодушной, организовали кампанию протеста #JusticeForNovikova, чтобы привлечь виновных к правосудию.

Из-за особой жестокости Алиева и его сообщников, которые всё ещё остаются на свободе, мы не можем выступать открыто. Но мы пользуемся поддержкой общественности, а также членов семьи Анастасии, в том числе и её отца.

Наша сила в международной солидарности. Мы приглашаем всех присоединиться к нашему голосу и требовать правосудия – ради Анастасии Новиковой, ради ее маленькой дочери, и ради всех жертв Рахата Алиева и его преступной группировки.

Меня зовут Анастасия Новикова.

Я выросла в Центральной Азии. Как все молодые люди, я мечтала о свободе и счастье. Я никогда не думала, что моя жизнь скоро закончится в унижениях, пытках и насильственной смерти. Виновным удалось избежать правосудия. Но мои друзья и заступники не остановятся, пока виновные не будут наказаны.

Вот краткая история моей жизни.

Я полюбила Рахатa Алиевa. Он обещал, что покажет мне мир. Он говорил, что я стану звездой. Я забеременела от него и была этому очень рада. Но человек, которого я любила и считала, что хорошо его знаю, принудил меня выйти замуж за своего родственника, чтобы я всегда была под контролем его семьи. Затем он увез меня в Бейрут и там посадил меня под замoк. Я оказалась запертой в квартире его сообщника. Я стала заложницей под присмотром его головорезов.

У меня оставалась только одна радость в жизни – моя любимая дочка. Но и ее он тоже у меня забрал. Все мои мучения до этого были ничем по сравнению с болью, которую я испытала, когда моего ребенка вырвали из моих рук. Я умоляла их дать повидаться с моей девочкой – обнять ее хоть на минутку – и они обещали, что приведут дочку ко мне. Но я никогда её больше не видела.

Многие месяцы Рахат Алиев и его приспешники держали меня в плену. Меня избивали, кололи наркотиками, насиловали, и пытали. Моё тело было изуродовано пытками, ссадинами от побоев, ожогами от их сигарет, и следами иглы, когда меня кололи наркотиками.

Они прервали мои страдания 19 июня 2004 года.

Соседи нашли мое тело на шипах ограды тремя этажами ниже балкона квартиры, которая была моей тюрьмой.

Это было десять лет назад. Моё имя, как и имена других жертв замученных моими палачами, было забыто.

Ради меня, моей дочери, ради всех пострадавших от рук моих убийц, привлеките их к правосудию!

#JusticeForNovikova

Сайт об Анастасии Новиковой


Сайт о её палаче и убийце Рахате Алиеве


Facebook


Twitter @JusticeNovikova

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Anastasiya’s daughter united with grandmother

UNITED: Anastasiya’s mother Tatiana and daughter Luiza, March 2008. (Credit: family member)

 Rakhat Aliyev is alive and well, and living in Kazakhstan. She is now 11 years old.

A lot of people have been asking us, “What happened to little Luiza?”

We want to give Luiza her privacy, and respect the privacy of the loving family that is raising her. However, we also want to provide proof that Luiza was united with her maternal grandmother – Anastasiya’s mother, Tatyana Medvedeva.

Mrs Medvedeva provided us with a photo of her with Luiza taken in early 2008, when Anastasiya’s remains were re-buried at a Christian funeral outside Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Here is the photo, appearing in public for the first time.

Anastasiya’s mother, Mrs Medvedeva, is holding her granddaughter Luiza, who was 4-1/2 at the time.

Mrs Medvedeva gave us permission to make the photo public.

We are told by other sources that DNA tests prove that Luiza is indeed the daughter of Anastasiya Novikova and Rakhat Aliyev.

Rakhat Aliyev has never acknowledged his youngest daughter, who was born in Beirut in the summer of 2003.

To recap the story

Aliyev had had Anastasiya sent to Beirut to live in captivity so that nobody would know about Aliyev’s illicit relationship and out-of-wedlock daughter. He coerced Anastasiya to marry his cousin, Daniyar Esten.

Both lived in Beirut in an apartment owned by Aliyev’s brother-in-law, Issam Hourani, and Issam’s brother Devincci Hourani. The Houranis and Esten allegedly participated in the forced captivity and brutalization of Anastasiya in Beirut, and in the coverup that followed Anastasiya’s violent death on June 19, 2004.

After helping dispose of Anastasiya’s body in a secret grave in southern Kazakhstan, Esten sent baby Luiza to live with his parents, also in Kazakhstan. Apparently he had them believe that he was Luiza’s father.

Esten was killed in a traffic incident in Austria the following year.

The Estens later learned the truth about Luiza when Anastasiya’s broken remains were discovered in their secret grave and exhumed in the summer of 2007.

After that discovery, Anastasiya’s mother, Mrs Mevdedeva, was united with her granddaughter for the first time and met the surviving Esten family.

#RakhatAliyev #JusticeForNovikova #JusticeNovikova