The Nazarbayev family versus the state coffers: the way Esimov misled officials and concealed billions in earnings

• 13.02.2026 08:20

Although alleged misappropriation persists at the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, it no longer appears to follow the patterns associated with the former leadership of Akhmetzhan Yessimov. The current management is widely expected to employ an alternative approach.

The crazy fluctuations in the reporting of individual enterprises within ’Samruk-Kazyna’ cannot be explained by anything else. Hysterical statements that ’Samruk-Kazyna,’ after the wise leadership by Nazarbayev’s nephew Akhmetzhan Yessimov, might reduce procurement volumes by twenty-two times suggest that there’s a mess in the fund’s reports.

If a large company reports a profit or a loss of 20% — it’s a market event.

If 40% — it’s a revolution. And KazMunayGas managed to increase its profit by 700%, while the fund itself supposedly remained unprofitable. Currently, there’s an audit of the enterprises previously entrusted to Akhmetzhan Yessimov — and judging by everything, the auditors’ findings are not pleasing. Several projects have been suspended until the audits are completed, as the volume of violations found in them is exceedingly large.

How did Akhmetzhan Yessimov rob the NWF?

Akhmetzhan Yessimov was not overly original in plundering the National Wealth Fund, which incorporates Kazakhstan’s monopoly enterprises.

• The first method involved inflating the budget, with purchases made within the fund itself, allowing for arbitrary pricing.
• The second method involved the fund’s non-targeted expenditures, particularly absurd, schizophrenic ’sports expenses’ and other extravagant displays.
• The third method of theft by Akhmetzhan Yessimov involved using the bank under his control, ATFBank. The ’owner’ of ATFBank, Galimzhan Yessenov, Yessimov’s son-in-law, was nothing more than a puppet; he had no money of his own at the time of acquiring ATFBank from the Italian-Austrian UniCredit group. The bank was needed to funnel money out of Kazakhstan. Exactly with Yessimov’s departure from Samruk-Kazyna, the bank was ’sold’ to the Elbasy fund, the records destroyed, and three hundred billion in loans, which Yessimov and Yessenov issued to their own enterprises, were graciously forgiven.

Now these methods will be replaced with more sophisticated ones: by selling shares and creating losses through investments in green energy. But Akhmetzhan Yessimov is not completely removed from leadership, as he has been appointed an advisor and can still serve faithfully in the cause of theft.

Samruk-Kazyna under Yessimov

During the years of shameless scheming, the ATFBank and Samruk-Kazyna, the family of Akhmetzhan Yessimov and Galimzhan Yessenov got immensely wealthy, acquiring part of the Côte d’Azur and many surprisingly expensive and unnecessary items. But if anyone thinks that Yessimov’s departure from Samruk-Kazyna marked the end of this family contract, they are mistaken.

On November 11, Nursultan Nazarbayev, exploiting his vague and unconstitutional status as Elbasy, went to teach the Samruk-Kazyna fund how to live further. The need for this visit is clear: after his nephew Akhmetzhan Yessimov was dismissed, some citizens might have illusions that power is changing. To show who is the boss – that was almost the sole purpose of Elbasy’s visit to Samruk-Kazyna.

There’s no logic in this. The main shareholder of Samruk-Kazyna, a national fund, is the government. Yet the supposedly government-appointed director of the NWF... does everything to harm the interests of the state that appointed him.

Akhmetzhan Yessimov deceived the country, the people, and the government

Under Akhmetzhan Yessimov, who built wonderful houses in France for himself, his daughter, and son-in-law Galimzhan Yessenov, the embezzlement of money from the NWF went in many directions. Galimzhan Yessenov’s function was the formal duty of maintaining ATFBank, and through ATFBank, in turn, Samruk-Kazyna kept the people’s money, with an average balance of a hundred billion tenge, by personal order of A. Yessimov. Although by law, the NWF had no right to hold even a tenge there.

For obvious reasons, the condition for Akhmetzhan Yessimov’s dismissal from Samruk-Kazyna was the destruction of evidence, namely the ATFBank along with all records. It was ’sold’ to the Elbasy fund in a rushed and secret manner. Galimzhan Yessenov and Akhmetzhan Yessimov, the actual and true owner of the bank, didn’t stop there and during the transition period, the bank ’forgave’ three hundred billion in loans, which were issued to effectively non-residents, offshore companies opened by the bank itself. Clearly, in response to Tokayev’s demand (if this moan can be called a demand) to pay Samruk-Kazyna’s profits to the budget, Yessimov simply brushed it aside. The money was already gone: it had been largely invested ’in himself.’

The continuity of this line of creating a parallel state, personally controlled by Nursultan Nazarbayev through loyal people, was shown by the former president when he took charge at Samruk-Kazyna. Contrary to some comments, it was not a solace show for the old boss: it was a clearly expressed program for further plundering of the country.