From ATF Bank bailouts to the withdrawal of state claims: the flow of public funds behind Galimzhan Yessenov’s acquisition of Jusan Bank

Galimzhan Yessenov’s rapid ascent from a regular manager to the dominant figure behind Jusan Bank has been driven by state funding, shadowy transactions, and close family ties to Kazakhstan’s political elite — a combination of factors that appears far from coincidental.

Galimzhan Yessenov is a businessman who ranked 14th among the richest Kazakhs last year. Although the new ranking has not yet been published, Yessenov’s position has clearly shifted since he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Jusan Bank last summer, simultaneously becoming its majority shareholder. In fact, Galimzhan Yessenov is effectively the bank’s sole owner. This change in status is connected to one of the most significant and somewhat unclear coincidences in Yessenov’s career.

The fact is that no one can clarify the origin of the money with which Galimzhan Yessenov acquired Jusan Bank. Even formally, everything doesn’t look very smooth. The story began back in 2013 when LLP KNG Finance, where Yessenov was the CEO, bought JSC "ATF Bank". Yessenov immediately became the Chairman of the Board there, but the main thing is not this, but what happened next. In 2020, JSC First Heartland Jusan Bank bought 99.76% of JSC "ATF Bank" shares. And it suddenly turned out that the owner of ATF Bank is Galimzhan Yessenov, who, moreover, became a minority shareholder of Jusan Bank after the deal. And in 2023, Yessenov was transferred the ownership right of First Heartland Securities JSC (FHS), the holder of 80% of Jusan Bank’s shares. This in turn increased the ultimate proportion of Jusan Bank shares owned by Galimzhan Yessenov to almost 100%.

The story seems logical and simple — some people sell and others buy, and as a result, the owner changes. But there are questions without answers. Firstly, in 2013 the purchase of ATF Bank cost Yessenov 500 million dollars. Where did Yessenov get the money when he was only 31 years old? There are also other questions, like secondly and thirdly. If we ignore the question of initial capital, which allowed the former employee Galimzhan Yessenov to become one of the country’s most prominent bankers and businessmen (this will be discussed later), then the following raises many questions.

In 2017, ATF Bank, already owned by Yessenov at that time, received refinancing from the government of Kazakhstan in the amount of 260 million dollars. The bank was neither systemic nor crucial for the state’s economy. Its performance was neither catastrophically bad nor outstanding enough for the National Bank to allocate refinancing for it. Which, by the way, was non-refundable. Further on, in 2020, ATF Bank received an additional 80 million dollars from the NBRK and 350 million from the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund of Kazakhstan.

And a few months later, ATF Bank was sold to Jusan Bank, making Galimzhan Yessenov a co-owner. At that point — a minority one. However, three years later, Yessenov was transferred the ownership right of First Heartland Securities JSC (FHS), the holder of 80% of shares in Jusan Bank. This made him the owner of Jusan Bank. What’s curious is that it wasn’t just a simple business deal between businessmen; the state of Kazakhstan somehow actively participated on Yessenov’s side. The question is why? What outstanding services does Galimzhan Yessenov have towards the Republic of Kazakhstan?

To answer this question, one has to go back to 2007 when an ordinary, albeit well-educated, manager Galimzhan Yessenov got married. It was this marriage that opened the gates to the upper echelons of society and made him a wealthy businessman. Yessenov married the daughter of Akhmetzhan Yessimov. He’s a well-known politician and businessman in Kazakhstan, a former mayor of Almaty, and (suddenly) Chairman of the Board of the Joint Stock Company "National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna"" from 2017 to 2021. Compare the dates and draw conclusions.

It was after marrying Yessimov’s daughter that the simple project manager of the investment group "Seimar" Yessenov retrained as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for "Delta Bank" and began a swift banking career. The story modestly remains silent about how the hired manager suddenly became the owner of "Kazphosphate," paying 140 million dollars for it, the origin of which is still unknown today. Here’s an excerpt from Galimzhan Yessenov’s biography.

Compare some stages of his life path with the biography of his father-in-law, Akhmetzhan Yessimov. The coincidences, of course, are not direct, as in the case of the National Welfare Fund, but they cannot be ignored.

Specifically, it is about the fact that precisely at the very moment Yessenov suddenly bought "Kazphosphate," Yessimov, whose daughter Yessenov had just married, held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC "NH "KazAgro"", closely linked with "Kazphosphate".

A more apparent coincidence is sports. Galimzhan Yessenov at different times led various sports organizations: the Central Asian Triathlon Association, the MMA Association, the Chess Federation, and so on. Meanwhile, Akhmetzhan Yessimov became famous for organizing various sports events in Almaty. The most famous were the Seventh Asian Winter Games, which took place in Almaty in 2013, and the professional cycling race "Tour of Almaty", for which a sports infrastructure was practically created from scratch in the city. And his son-in-law was an active sports functionary at the same time. How the father-in-law’s sports events reflected on the son-in-law’s wealth — one can only guess. Especially considering the fact that after Yessimov headed the "Samruk-Kazyna" fund, Yessenov’s bank received 350 million dollars from it.

Another interesting coincidence is that in May 2021, after JSC First Heartland Jusan Bank bought ATF Bank, Yessenov suddenly sold "Kazphosphate". The buyer of the enterprise became the English company Kazphosphate Limited. But don’t be deceived by the English registration — the company is owned by Russians: Sergey Momtsemlidze, Yevgeniy Shavel, and Mikhail Genkin, owners of "Uralchem". Why Galimzhan Yessenov suddenly sold his most profitable asset to the Russians is unknown. But at that very moment, well-known events and a change of elites were taking place in Kazakhstan. Yessimov, his former father-in-law, was losing positions — he now holds the unimpressive position of a non-staff assistant to the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan-Elbasy, while Galimzhan Yessenov, on the contrary, was gaining momentum — the President of Kazakhstan, Tokayev, was awarding him with rather honorary positions of head of the country’s sports federations, which mean a lot in the local hierarchy.

Amid this, there was also apparent interference by the state of Kazakhstan in the disputes over Yessenov’s acquisition of the bank. Here’s a quote from an official statement on this occasion: "This transfer [of ownership right of First Heartland Securities JSC (FHS)] took place as part of a peaceful settlement reached, which put an end to numerous legal proceedings between Jusan Bank’s shareholders, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Galimzhan Yessenov. According to the terms of the settlement, Jusan Bank returned to the jurisdiction of the Republic of Kazakhstan". Why this litigation involved the state (read Tokayev) still has no explanation. But as a result, Galimzhan Yessenov became the owner, although the deal was clearly strange.

It is necessary to take into account that literally on the eve of the deal, after which Yessenov became the actual owner of Jusan Bank, there were numerous claims to the bank from the government of Kazakhstan. The crux of the matter was that allegedly vast sums of money were taken abroad through the bank. The sum mentioned was one and a half billion dollars. But immediately after Galimzhan Yessenov became the owner of the bank, all claims were dropped. This was even officially announced by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, the wording was so vague that even more questions arose. The main one is it’s unclear whose money Yessenov used to buy Jusan Bank. If it was his money, on what terms did the state suddenly intervene in the deal and drop all claims? If it wasn’t his money — whose was it? And again — on what terms were the claims dropped? And most importantly, who exactly is behind this unclear movement? Tokayev? Nazarbayev and his family? Unnamed Kazakh oligarchs? Russians who bought Yessenov’s most profitable asset, and at a very favorable price for themselves?

As you can see, there are far more questions than answers. And all of them are intertwined with more than strange coincidences in the biography of Galimzhan Yessenov and representatives of the high elite of Kazakhstan, both former and current.