The Man Who Sold Kazakhstan For His Own Independence

According to Forbes, in 2015 Bulat Utemuratov was the richest man in Kazakhstan, with a combined fortune of 2.6 billion dollars. Utemuratov built his fortune simply by acquiring ownership over public enterprises and then reselling them to Western corporations. He was able to do this by being a close friend and advisor to Kazakhstan’s strongman, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Today, however, is not very clear who used whom. By selling important assets to Western corporations, Utemuratov became financially and politically independent from Nazarbayev, since his money is now in Western banks. Rumors are that he is willing to use his independence to play against Nazarbayev.

His plans to undermine his protector are threatened, though, by his past actions. Utemuratov is involved in a money laundering scheme currently under investigation in the Netherlands.

How it all began

Utemuratov’s career truly began in 1992, when the newly elected president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, asked him to go to Vienna to find business partners for the newly independent ex-Soviet republic. A loyal apparatchik, Utemuratov thought that he was being punished into exile. He soon found out that, on the contrary, this was the beginning of a new and very lucrative career – he became in fact Nazarbayev’s right hand.

Within a year after landing in Vienna, Utemuratov helped broker Kazakhstan’s first line of credit, from Creditanstalt. On the side, he was making his first million dollars by buying zinc and copper from Kazakh miners and reselling the metals abroad.

From that point onward, Utemuratov’s wealth began to grow, as did his influence on Nazarbayev, who was eventually proclaimed president for life.

The first two billion

Utemuratov made his first official entrance in the billionaires’ club in 2007, when he managed to sell ATF Bank to UniCredit Bank Austria AG for 2.3 billion dollars, the highest price ever paid for a Kazakh bank.

Utemuratov founded Almaty Trade-Finance Bank CJSC in June 1995. He renamed it ATF Bank JSC in 2002. He used the bank to further strengthen his connections with Nazarbayev’s family: Timur Kulibaev, ATF’s first chairman, is the husband of one of Nazarbayev’s three daughters, Dinara.

The 2.3 billion dollars were channelled into Verny Capital, a Kazakh private equity firm whose lead investor is none other than Bulat Utemuratov. In fact, Verny Capital was created in 2006 primarily to manage Utemuratov’s money.

From rich to richer

In 2011, Verny Capital sold its controlling stake in zinc producer Kazzinc JSC to Glencore International Plc. When Glencore went public, the transaction brought Utemuratov a healthy 3.2 billion dollars.

Given that Glencore, the world’s third-largest family business, has a reputation for unethical behavior, selling Kazzinc to Glencore created quite a stir in Kazakhstan. Several politicians, journalists and activists sent an open letter to Glencore’s investors:

“As representatives of Kazakhstan’s civil society, we are concerned about the above mentioned transactions and suspect that the purpose of these transactions is to disguise a process of money laundering by high-ranking Kazakhstan civil servants.

[…]Bulat Utemuratov, the former Head of Administration of the President of Kazakhstan, is a co-owner of KazZinc. Utemuratov is widely believed to be holding these assets for the benefit of Nazarbayev.”

Money laundering

It appears the Kazakh opposition is right: a money laundering scheme did indeed exist.

The public prosecutor’s office in Zwolle, the Netherlands, opened an investigation on the suspicion that Glencore paid millions of dollars in bribes to Utemuratov. Formally, the investigation runs against a Dutch trustee, who is accused by the authorities of money laundering. In this context, however, it is also about the business of Glencore in Kazakhstan.

At the center of the criminal investigations is a business in which Glencore, through a subsidiary in Nidwalden, has bought Kazzinc shares for over 20 million dollars from an off-shore company in Curaçao, for which the Caribbean company previously paid only 7.7 million dollars. The Dutch prosecutor’s office assumes that the price difference, ultimately at least 5 million dollars, got into Utemuratov’s pockets.

The Swiss authorities are helping the Dutch investigators, who are expected to proceed with questioning soon. If the investigation ends up going to court, it would be the first time that Utemuratov will face exposure of this kind.Source: https://www.oligarchsinsider.com/the-man-who-sold-kazakhstan-for-his-own-independence/

Advantages of Having A Personal Injury Attorney

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Have you recently sustained injuries from an avoidable accident? Is the insurance company of the party at default contacting you for a quick settlement of your claim? If this is the case, then Don’t Do It!

In fact, never talk to his/her insurance company until you consult your NJ personal injury attorney. You may completely be unfamiliar with the rates of compensations, but your seasoned lawyers are. 

If you get harmed in an accident, don’t talk to anyone except to answer quick questions from the police at the accident scene. To fully understand the value of having a personal injury attorney, here top five benefits of contracting an injury law firm.

Helps you in building a solid case

For you to get compensated for injuries sustained during an accident, it’s a legal requirement to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accident occurred as a result of negligence from the other party.

Providing proof for your case is not an easy task, and that’s where your injury lawyer comes in. An injury lawyer will help you in collecting evidence such as:

  1. Collecting information from eyewitnesses,
  2. Analyzing your medical report, 
  3. Gathering information such as driving the history of at default party, 
  4. Examining the medical report of a default party, 
  5. Obtaining and analyzing police report and accident reports that details the events of the accident
  6. Hiring reconstruction accident expert to determine the sequence of events before, during, and after the crash.

A Personal injury attorney Understand the Legal Process.

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You might be unfamiliar with the legal requirements and procedures surrounding personal injury claim, but your attorney is not because he handles these types of claims daily.

Personal injury attorney knows how and when to file all the legal documents necessary for your claim, and they understand what the applicable statutes of limitation are. Furthermore, the attorney knows all the legal tricks that insurance companies use to defeat or under compensate claimants.

Attempting to follow a lawsuit on your own increases your chances of not getting the compensation you rightfully deserve on the grounds of legal technicalities or negligence due to a lack of legal knowledge. That exactly why you need a personal injury lawyer to stand by your side and make sure you are not taken advantage of.  

A personal injury lawyer has the motivation to help you

Personal injury attorneys mostly work on a contingency basis. Meaning they only get paid for every injury case they win. This is incredibly awesome since you have a well experienced and motivated lawyer working tirelessly to help you get the highest possible compensation from the at-default insurance company.

Furthermore, since the payment plan only allows for payment when a settlement is reached, the lawyers work around the clock to quickly settle your claim for them to get a pay check. After all, don’t we all work to get paid?

To learn more about the contingency payment plan, see this link: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/contingent-payment-work-12285.html 

An attorney has the experience of dealing with insurance companies

Taking a lawsuit against an insurance company is like going for a war. Undertaking such war by on your own is equivalent to showing up for a battle empty-handed without any weapons. No matter how well you prepare yourself, you won’t stand a chance of putting an intense fight.

Representing yourself in an injury lawsuit only gives the insurance company more confidence and power to dodge the compensation or at least under compensating since they have far more knowledge and bargaining power than you do.

Having a skilled and experienced personal injury attorney during such battle is the best weapon you can have for yourself to have a fair fight. An attorney is familiar with the claim process and will only ensure that your interests are well protected and dually served.

Attorney Knows the Value of Your Claim

Other than you and your immediate family members, it is only your injury attorney that has your best interest at heart when it comes to the correct valuing of your injury claims. The lawyers and insurance companies for the at-default party will take any small chance they get to devalue your claims.

An attorney will collect all the essential evidence to correctly equate the valuation of all of the compensation you rightfully deserve, for the past, present, and future. To accurately value your benefit, your lawyer will not only determine your economic damages such as medical bills but also the non-economic damages such as pain, suffering, etc. that you suffered during and after the incident.To learn more about the economic and non-economic damages, click here.

Posted in Law

The Best Synthetic Urine Tips

There are multiple usages for synthetic urine but the most common reason to buy it is to pass a drug test. It isn’t what the majority of people that are being tested will use as a method but the market is growing and we can see better products being made. When employers started testing people we didn’t have products like these and it was harder to cheat on it but nowadays we have a few methods that will work in 99% of cases.

Getting the best fake urine isn’t hard but you need to do some investigation online and check things that are related to your situation. Things like the time of delivery and how much you have until the test will matter. Knowing about drug tests will give you better insight into cheating on it so you should know other methods if something goes wrong. Look for the top article online that can give you additional information if you want to learn more.

Synthetic Urine Market

If you know people that went through this situation then they can give you some information about the process of taking a drug test. This is very important because it will give you some kind of confidence going in which is very important if you want to use this kind of product. There’s no place to being uncomfortable because testers can notice that something is wrong. They’ve been in those situations many times and they are prepared for it.

Large companies like Alliexpress, Amazon or Alibaba all have these products and they are the perfect location to compare them. It’s always better to buy from the company that makes the product but you should first check the reviews and ratings. You also need to decide what type of kit you want to buy. If it matters a lot for you to pass, then get a more expensive kit that can go up to $100. This is nothing compared to losing the job.

These kits go with a bottle of synthetic urine, belt and a tube or fake penis depending on the kit. The better the quality the more it will cost. Products that are more popular than others will work for sure but it also depends on you. The way you take care of the product is important because it may affect the outcome of testing if you don’t use it correctly.

Get more information here: http://www.c-koren.com/how-to-choose-the-best-synthetic-urine/

Hiding the Fake Urine

If you did your investigation and you know there won’t be tough supervision, the next step is to prepare the product. When you bought it, always try to put it on without using the fake urine. Just use the belt and place it so you can see if it is hidden well. Because testers know how you can hide it, it can’t be seen at any moment.

Try moving around with it because it may happen that it is loose or it loosens up over time. You don’t want that to happen at the testing because getting caught may have bigger consequences. It is actually against the law to cheat on these tests. When you try it you will be sure that you are ready to go and you won’t have any fear of failing.

Follow the Instructions

Following instructions is the perfect tip if you want to pass the test because everything will be provided to you when you get the synthetic urine. If you bought a quality product, it will come with a manual which will inform you how to prepare it in detail. This includes the temperature of fake urine, how to place the belt and what not to do.

Besides taking care of the product you need to follow instructions of the tester. If you do what they say without any complaining or asking many questions, you won’t look suspicious. They also would like that you pass it because they will have additional work if you fail. You only need a couple of hours to prepare and make a plan on how to cheat on it.

Issues You Might Have

The first issue people have with using synthetic urine is the fear of getting caught. This may be your worst problem because panicking will only increase the chances of failing. If you follow the instructions you shouldn’t have any problems with that and if you already decided to cheat you shouldn’t worry too much. The second thing you might have a problem is the product.

Some of the products that can be bought online are very poor quality. It’s crucial to know where you are getting it from and the expiry date. If the package you got is opened or you notice something unusual you should return it. It’s very important for the chemicals not to get exposed because it can easily ruin your chances of cheating.

If you have a problem with the tube, you can just remove it and place the sample in the cup. Find a trusted retailer that has a lot of positive reviews. When checking the product, use forums where people give an honest opinion. There will always be some bad comments but you can surely find what you need.

Urine Test Advantages and Disadvantages

One of the disadvantages is the low positive rate which means that in recent years there weren’t as many as positive results as before. The chance to see such a drop is low so the most obvious thing is to say that people have figured out a way to pass it anyway. It isn’t reliable is other types of drug testing like hair follicle which is up to 5 times more accurate. 

Click here to read more on types of drug testing..

It stays as number one type of drug test because it’s been used for a long time and it’s cheaper than other options. This will change in the future because we will have better testing technology. A good thing is that it can test a variety of drugs. It’s easily manipulated so at a certain point it won’t be beneficial to spend money on testing when everyone is going to pass.