Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. · June 16, 2003

1ST KAZAKHGATE DEFENDANT PLEADS GUILTY -- A former Mobil Oil Co. executive linked to a bribery scandal involving the president of Kazakhstan has pleaded guilty to evading taxes on more than $7 million in unreported income, including a $2 million kickback in connection with oil contracts in the Central Asian republic, reports the New York Times. J. Bryan Williams' guilty plea in U.S. District Court " stems from a three-year federal investigation into a plan to bribe Kazakh leaders for oil rights in their country." Nazarbayev is still under investigation in the case known as Kazakhgate, but he has not been charged as of this date; his close advisor, James Giffen, was indicted in April on charges he paid $78 million in bribes to top Kazakh officials, primarily Nazarbayev, according to published reports. The investigation, the largest ever involving the Foreign corrupt Practices Act, continues. He will serve between 38 and 57 months in prison and faces fines and restitution in the millions of dollars when he is sentenced on Sept. 18, the Associated Press reported.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/13/business/13OIL.html?tntemail0
THE SECRET IS OUT -- If anyone thought the U.S. courts were independent or the FBI and the Justice Department answered the President of the United States and his attorney general, forget about it. The Kazakh dictator has revealed who is really running the U.S. justice system as well as the Swiss banking and justice authorities: it is his old rival, former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin. According to Nazarbayev, all these investigations, including those that netted a guilty plea by a former Mobil Oil executive this week and a string of indictments (for allegedly bribing Nazarbayev, among other things) against the dictator's close friend and advisor, James Giffen, are a plot orchestrated by Kazhegeldin. That news came as such a shock to George W. Bush that he still hasn't commented publicly. Nazarbayev has tried to have Kazhegeldin arrested abroad and government officials once tried to physically seize the former prime minister while meeting with member of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill. When that failed, Nazarbayev's puppet courts charged and convicted Kazhegeldin on corruption charges in absentia. U.S. and other international officials have widely condemned the attacks on Kazhegeldin, but that hasn't deterred Nazarbayev. He recently told the Financial Times that the U.S. and Swiss investigations are "provocative and baseless" and the result of "false charges" by his former prime minister, who was forced to leave the country because his life was in danger. Swiss authorities report that a major chunk of the $78 million in bribes and other payments collected by Geffin allegedly went into bank accounts controlled by Nazarbayev personally. Noting that Nazarbayev has hired yet another well connected Washington lobbying firm to try to exert political leverage to quash the investigation of his financial dealings, Kazhegeldin said: "I have a bit of disappointing news for (Nazarbayev): PR and lobbying firms do not draft criminal indictments - independent US grand juries do." http://news.ft.com/

WHITE SLAVERS -- Kazakhstan faces U.S. sanctions for failing to make any significant efforts to halt the trafficking in humans, the State Department said this week. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "it is appalling and morally unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are exploited, abused an enslaved by peddlers in human misery." "Kazakhstan is a source, transit and destination country for women and men trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation and labor," the State Department said. The report faulted the Nazarbayev regime for failure to "comply with the minimum standards…and is not making significant efforts" to eliminate trafficking. In fact, State found a significant drop in the government's anti-trafficking efforts and a failure to follow through on past promises and plans. http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2003/21276.htm
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