Kyiv's Prosecutor Office on February 13, 2018 brought charges against a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kennet Alibek, in relation to his acting as an accessory in money laundering in an especially large amount committed by a criminal group in the process of provision by BTA Bank of credit facilities for the reconstruction of Max-Well Pharmaceutical Plant in Kyiv Region, Ilyashev & Partners law firm has said in a press release.

The law firm represents the interests of BTA Bank.

According to the report, if found guilty in the court process, Ken Alibek is facing up to 15 years of imprisonment and confiscation of property.

Pursuant to the information from the unified public register, within the period from 2006 till 2010 Kennet Alibek acted as the founder and the Director of the Max-Well Scientific-Production Oncological and Cardiological Center (currently – Pharmex), which was used by the ex-owner of Kazakh BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov, for laundering the embezzled monetary assets. The oligarch, formerly Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, is accused in Kazakhstan of embezzlement of over $7.5 billion. Similar claims were brought by Ukrainian and Russian authorities who incriminate him in the misappropriation of $2.5 billion.

Starting from 2009 the law-enforcement authorities of Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the Russian Federation have been investigating the biggest banking fraud in the CIS which involved participation of over 1 000 dummy companies all over the World.

Some time ago the English courts found Ablyazov guilty of fraud, ordered him to pay $4.3 billion and sentenced him to 22 months in prison. Ablyazov failed to serve his prison sentence by fleeing to France using fake ID where he was arrested in summer 2013. The banker had spent 3.5 years in the detention facility awaiting extradition to Ukraine or Russia. In June 2017, Ablyazov was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison and confiscation of property by the specialized inter-district court of Almaty.

At the beginning of 2017 the National Police of Ukraine opened a criminal investigation over unlawful withdrawal of the monetary assets and their laundering, as well as brought new charges against Ablyazov, and the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine lodged an additional petition to France for extradition of Ablyazov to Ukraine for bringing him to the criminal responsibility under the count related to Max-Well (Pharmex).