04 Jul 2011

Former Kazakh Ambassador Accuses Regime of Funneling Money to Us Congress

Rakhat Aliyev (pictured here), the former Kazakh Ambassador to Austria and former son-in-law to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, recently alleged that Nazarbayev has been secretly and illegally been funneling money to various members of the US Congress – so-called group of friends of Kazakhstan.

Mr. Aliyev recently had a falling out with President Nazarbayev and is currently seeking asylum in Austria.

The Projoct on Government Oversight (POGO), on June 2nd, wrote a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to investigate the claims alleged by Mr. Aliyev after they produced a letter supposedly written by the Kazakh Ambassador to the USA, Erlan Idrissov (who has written his own Op-Ed in the New York Times in responde to the allegations), telling President Nazarbayev about the so-called group of Congressmen and their staff.

POGO says that the allegations are at least worth investigating even though Kazakh officials have stated that the letter is a forgery.

For the original article from Eurasianet.org, please click here.

Please note that the photo of Mr. Aliyev comes courtesy of the Eurasianet.org article and is accredited to the OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev.