Southern District of New York

Southern District of New York City of Almaty, Kazakhstan v. Mukhtar Ablyazov was filed on 9 July 2015 in the Southern District of New York federal court with Judge Alison Julie Nathan presiding. Court documents show that the Plaintiffs are seeking to depose Ablyazov in New York, the UK, Spain or France, and that Ablyazov has not yet produced documents in discovery effectively stonewalling the court. Ablyazov wrote to the federal judge in February 2019 that he cannot provide documents to the court because he left them in the U.K. in 2012. The Plaintiffs responded that Ablyazov has obstructed discovery and indeed documents are in possession by Ablyazov’s U.K. lawyers and he could instruct their release to the court.

Following a three-week trial in late 2022, a jury of four men and four women sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York returned a verdict today in favor of BTA Bank JSC on all claims against Triadou SPV S.A. The jury awarded BTA damages of more than USD $100 million with interest dating to mid-2013, resulting in a total award of more than USD $218 million. The Honorable John G. Koeltl, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, presided over the trial and received the verdict.

The trial, which began on November 29, 2022, represented the first time that BTA Bank has presented evidence of the fraud and money laundering scheme orchestrated by Mukhtar Ablyazov in a contested trial. The multi-billion dollar embezzlement perpetrated by Ablyazov resulted in the Bank’s nationalization, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

A simple guide to main points of each judgment is available here.