Ritz-Carlton

History

2020: Arrest of a hotel in the center of Moscow in a money laundering case through Kazakhstan BTA Bank

In early December 2020, a civil court Great Britain arrested the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, located in the center, Moscow in the case of money laundering Kazakhstan BTA Bank the through and illegal withdrawal of money from it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing court documents, the reason for freezing assets was the new accusations of BTA Bank, which believes that Kazakh billionaire Bulat Utemuratov helped 11 more individuals and companies hide money stolen from the bank.

Interim measures apply to a number of accounts in UBS Group, Credit Suisse Group, EFG Worldwide and DBS Group Holdings banks, as well as to companies with stakes in Ritz-Carlton-branded hotels in Moscow, Vienna and Nur-Sultan, as well as in the Burger King franchise in Kazakhstan, WSJ indicates.

The court arrested the Ritz-Carlton hotel near the Kremlin in the case of money laundering through the Kazakh BTA Bank

We received a decision of the English court on restrictive measures to dispose of all assets. These restrictions do not apply to and do not affect the operating activities of companies in which Bulat Utemuratov is a shareholder, including banks, hotels, telecom operators, a mining company and fast food restaurants, - explained the head of the Verny Capital group (owner of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow) Erlan Ospanov.

Utemuratov is a former manager of the President of Kazakhstan. He ranked fourth in the ranking of the richest entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan according to Forbes magazine. His fortune was estimated by the publication at $2.8 billion.

Bulat Utemuratov does not admit involvement in money laundering and asset withdrawal. The charges against him are part of a decades-long dispute between BTA Bank and its ex-head Mukhtar Ablyazov. Since 2004, he controlled the bank until it came under the control of the government of Kazakhstan. The organization claims that Ablyazov withdrew more than $6 billion from the bank.^[1][2]

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