Ritz-Carlton

History

2020: Arrest on the case of money muling through the Kazakhstan BTA Bank

At the beginning of December, 2020 the civil court of Great Britain arrested the Ritz-Carlton hotel located in the center of Moscow on the case of money muling through the Kazakhstan BTA Bank and illegal withdrawal of money from it.

According to the The Wall Street Journal newspaper with reference to court documents, new charges of BTA Bank which considers that the Kazakh billionaire Bulat Utemuratov helped 11 more individuals and the companies to hide the money stolen from bank formed the basis for freezing of assets.

Interim measures work for a number of accounts in UBS Group, Credit Suisse Group, EFG Worldwide and DBS Group Holdings banks and also for the companies having shares in hotels under a brand of Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, Vienna and Nour-Sultan and also in a franchize of Burger King in Kazakhstan, specifies WSJ.

The court arrested Ritz-Carlton hotel at the Kremlin on the case of money muling through the Kazakhstan BTA Bank

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

Utemuratov – former managing affairs of the president of Kazakhstan. He took the fourth place in the rating of the richest entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan according to the Forbes magazine. The edition estimated its fortune in $2.8 billion.

Bulat Utemuratov does not recognize participation in money muling and an output of assets. Charges against it — a part of a long-term dispute between BTA Bank and its former head Mukhtar Ablyazov. It since 2004 controlled bank until that passed under control of the government of Kazakhstan. The organization claims that Ablyazov brought out of bank more than $6 billion^[1][2]

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