The Corruption Continues, Part 1, The Kazakh Mob

I have spent over two years researching and chronicling the corruption within the Clinton Foundation and its many egregious acts that have never been brought to light. Recently, the selling of 20% of America’s uranium reserves has caught the attention of the major media industry. Even though I have written about this in the past, I have been doing further research on this single issue. I have read countless stories, some sensationalizing the reported scandal, but none have told the whole story. To be fair, its possible the whole story can never be known, but I have attempted to piece together a lot of what I already knew with what is being reported, in order to give a much more comprehensive understanding of just what happened. In the next few blog posts, I will layout the evidence against Bill and Hillary Clinton, and others in this blatant act of corruption.

First, let me start by saying this saga is extremely complicated….extremely! I couldn’t begin to know or explain all the turns and twists that led to Russia owning 20% of America’s uranium reserves. I can only provide a fair overview, touching on the building blocks that make the case. For real detail, with all the hard to pronounce names and the dozens of shells and holding companies that made it all possible, you will have to go to the links I will provide throughout each blog post.

I think the best and easiest way for me to explain it is to start with a timeline of events. These events cover a fifteen year period of time. I will then expand on each event below the timeline, including the timeline in each blog post.

All of us bloggers, who seek the truth, are always looking for that proverbial smoking gun. The players in this corruption are no idiots. They skirt the law, hide from the law, cover up mistakes, and adapt very well. Smoking guns are rare, so all one can expect to accomplish is to make a case by voluminous and overwhelming evidence that allows the reader to draw educated conclusions

Whatever you’ve read or have seen about the Uranium One scandal, you have not gotten the whole story. The corruption is so extensive and so disgusting, not even a screenwriter could make a movie this creative. Even though I am starting this story in Kazakhstan, the Clinton corruption spans the globe and time. Bill and Hillary Clinton are truly American oligarchs.

Kazakhstan is a former part of the Soviet Union. It was created in 1991 when the Soviet Union disbanded. Kazakhstan is the largest of the former soviet republics, now an independent nation.  You cannot understand Uranium One without understanding the corruption in Kazakhstan. By 1997, Kazakhstan was becoming very corrupt. The president, elected in 1989,  Nursultan Nazarbayev, remains president today in his fifth term. In 1997, a young businessman of 34 became a favorite of the president. His name is Mukhtah Ablyazov. He started a business selling commodities like sugar and salt. He learned how to create a holding company and after a few years became quite successful owning several companies. Nazarbayev, appointed him head of the state owned electric grid agency, where he swiftly turned it around to be a money maker. Within a year he was made minister of energy, industry, and trade of all Kazakhstan.  You can read more about him here.

Mukhtah Ablyazov will play prominently throughout this story.  Also in 1997 a friend of  Ablyazov’s was also appointed to a high post. Mukhtar Dzhakishev was made the head of Kazatomprom, the agency that oversees atomic energy, including uranium. By 1998, many of Kazakhstan’s banks were failing. Three of the largest merged into one, naming itself BTA Bank.  Ablyazov was able to borrow money and in early 1999 he bought BTA Bank. He was able to turn the financial sector around and BTA began to attract foreign investment. For all intent and purposes,

Ablyazov was headed for great success. But then he made a small mistake. Unable to work within the corrupt auspices of Nazarbayev, he started a political party in opposition to Nazarbayev. He quickly was accused of being corrupt, himself, and jailed. He was released from prison after pledging to disband and disavow his new party. He now would change course. He began to Raid BTA of billions of assets. He created close to 1000 shell companies in every tax haven in the world, successfully hiding billions. The Kazakh mines that were key to the Uranium One scandal were part of this scheme.

While Ablyazov was in jail, a close friend took charge of the bank. One Yerzhan Tatishev. He had been working on a large deal with Russia. In Russia and Kazakhstan business is not conducted like it is here. Here is an account from an Eastern website called “Llama”, that outlines what happened when Ablyazov was released from jail:

ABLYAZOV PARDONED, TATISHEV MURDERED

“Mukhtar Ablyazov was pardoned a year later by President Nazarbayev in exchange that he publicly promise to stay out of politics.  Ablyazov conceded and after a stint in Russia he returned to Kazakhstan only to have his friend and BTA bank president, Yerzhan Tatishev, shot and killed in December 2004.  In what was described as a hunting accident, Platt’s Oilgram (Volume 84, Number 87) reported the following:

“Tatishev had been reported to own from 20% to 60% of BTA, which has spread in recent years into Ukraine, Azerbaijan and other Central Asian venues. Tatishev was shot in the back of the head while driving his own Jeep on a hunting trip in December 2004. While reaching for a loaded rifle, the security-conscious marksman, known to always use a driver, reportedly hit a bump and the gun went off.”

That sounds legit.  According to a Wikileaks cable, Tatishev was set to complete a multi-million dollar financing deal with Leningrad Oblast, inferring that perhaps that was why he was eliminated or that it was his ties to Ablyazov’s political party that did him in. Others say he stashed BTA money in the U.S. a year prior but many believed Ablyazov himself was behind Tatishev’s demise.  Rumor had it that Tatishev held Ablyazov’s stake in BTA bank after he was arrested and charged in 2002.  When Ablyazov returned to Kazakhstan he not only wanted his shares back, he wanted Tatishev to take part in a criminal financial scheme but Tatishev refused.”

Shortly after the murder of Tatishev, Ablyazov and  Dzhakishev create two new shell companies: Urasia London, Ltd. and Jeffcott Group, Ltd. The shell companies were registered offshore and set up specifically to own Kazakh mining interests. Two of the biggest mines were 30% owned by the state and 70% owned by BTA Bank. A lesser mine was 70% owned by the state and 30% by BTA. The BTA portions were now sold to the new shell companies for $100,000. A mere pittance of their value.  Only weeks later Frank Guista’s Urasia was able to buy the rights to the Kazakh mines from Urasia London and Jeffcott……for $350 million!!!!

So who is Frank Guistra? He is the star of the show. Frank was well-known in the movie industry. He was the founder and CEO of the Canadian movie studio, Lion’s Gate. Giustra was also a huge philanthropist and financier and consultant of mostly mining ventures, through his company Endeavor Financial.

He is a Canadian citizen which we will see becomes quite valuable in this saga. We will come back to Giustra later, but sticking to the timeline for now……we are in June of 2005. This is when Frank Giustra and Bill Clinton meet for the first time. Before Frank meets Bill, he already has in the works the Kazakh mining rights. He assembles a blue ribbon team to do the work of acquiring the Kazakh assets. From the publication “Llama”:

“The team included Phillip Shirvington, Ian Telfer, Robert Cross, Frank Holmes, Douglas Holtby, Dr. Massimo Carello, Canaccord Capital, BMO Nesbitt Burns, GMP Securities, Ltd., and Russian Sergey Kurzin.” 

Why I included this list is for only one reason: I recognized the last name on the list….Sergey Kurzin. He used to work for Mark Rich, and if you have read my piece on Rich, you would know that what Giustra is attempting, is exactly what Rich did in the 80s and 90s, and was the guy pardoned by Bill Clinton in 1999. You can read that account here. While his team was working, Giustra created a new company….Urasia Energy, Ltd. By any definition, it is a shell company as it has no sales or no assets. 3 months after meeting Bill Clinton, Giustra and Bill Clinton arrive in Kazakhstan on the same day in September of 2005. They reportedly meet with Mukhtar Dzhakishev who is still the head of Kazakh energy agency, Kazatomprom. But it has been revealed that a day later Bill and Frank met with Ablyazov who transferred the rights from his two shell companies, back through BTA to Giustra’s new company, Urasia Energy. Overnight Frank Giustra became one of the largest producers of uranium in the world. He pays $350 million to Ablyazov. And two months later in February of 2006, Giustra donates $31.2 million to the Clinton Foundation.

In my next segment, I will discuss how Uranium One came into existence and acquired 20% of America’s uranium reserves. For more details on this story go to the links below.

https://www.euromoney.com/article/b12kjzckjgvs22/the-hunt-for-mukhtar-ablyazov-banker-criminal-fugitive-victim

https://jimmysllama.com/2017/04/01/more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-uranium-one-and-how-ruslan-tsarni-played-a-role/