Bolashak Consulting Group under scrutiny in Stati affair

In the latest episode of the long-running legal battle with the Stati clan, the discreet Bolashak Consulting Group continues to assist the Kazakh government. However, some of its supporters in the latter are losing their influence.

The Kazakh government filed a fresh lawsuit in its 12-year legal wrangle with Moldovan businessmen Anatol Stati and Gabriel Stati in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia in the US on 1 March. The suit revives questions about Bolashak Consulting Group, which regularly works for the Kazakh government on international cases.

The firm, whose young lawyers often later obtain positions as government officials, recently lost a key friend in the administration when former justice minister Marat Beketayev, who spearheaded most of the Kazakh government’s lawsuits against the Stati in international courts, resigned as adviser to Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov on 12 February, after a year in the job. Intelligence Online’s sources say he was actually sacked in December.