Zhanna Kapparova from Astana, speaking for her mother Karlygash — a victim of fraudulent actions by Freedom Finance’s top managers — took part in Kazakhstan’s first socio-political forum “Victims of the Old Kazakhstan,” where she publicly criticized the companies of Russian-born businessman Timur Turlov.

“Freedom Finance is not registered as a broker in the United States and has no right to conduct trading on the Nasdaq or NYSE exchanges, which was confirmed, in particular, by Nasdaq regarding Freedom Finance. This means that the money of my mother and other citizens did not even have access to the American stock market,” Kapparova said on Thursday.

According to her, a Freedom Finance employee, abusing her mother’s trust, “gave her a contract to sign” not with Freedom Finance, as she believed, but with an offshore entity.

The signing also took place in the office of the Freedom Finance holding in Astana. At the same time, he did not explain any risks and did not inform her that the funds would be transferred abroad.

“This is deliberate misleading. And it’s not only about my mother. It’s about dozens and hundreds of people — citizens all across Kazakhstan,” Kapparova said.

According to her, her mother was assured that the money was safe and that everything was legal, while in reality the funds were being massively transferred to offshore companies, and transactions were routed to foreign entities that had no right to operate in Kazakhstan.

She stated that the legal cover for these operations was provided by Timur Turlov’s personal lawyer.

“Regulators are doing nothing despite numerous signs of fraud. This is not just an isolated case — this is a systemic scheme… Who will be held responsible? When will government agencies finally act?” Kapparova asked.

Notably, KazTAG earlier sent multiple inquiries to Turlov’s press service regarding the described situation, but all requests remain unanswered.

As previously reported, information obtained by KazTAG in mid-March indicated that in August 2024 an internal investigation was launched at Freedom Finance JSC into the actions of V. Svetovoy, who served as executive director. According to the findings, Svetovoy abused his position and clients’ trust, entered into personal financial dealings with clients, and encouraged them to transfer money not to the company’s accounts but directly to him — allegedly for more effective investment.

According to the information, the funds obtained in this way were not used for investments but for Svetovoy’s personal expenses, including repayment of his debts. The materials stated that these actions were taken independently, without the knowledge of management. Based on the investigation, Svetovoy was dismissed in August 2024 for conduct discrediting the company.

According to the documents obtained by KazTAG, the case materials were handed over to law enforcement authorities for possible criminal prosecution. As became known on April 3, the information mentioned above may have largely originated from Freedom Finance itself, which may have attempted to imitate an internal investigation to demonstrate apparent compliance to supervisory bodies.

On March 17, the KazTAG editorial office reached out to Freedom Finance’s press service for comment, but no response has been received to this day.

Meanwhile, on March 26, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) replied to the editorial inquiry and confirmed that, based on complaints from depositors about fraud by a top manager, a review of Freedom Finance had been initiated.

Freedom Finance is part of Freedom Holding Corp., whose main shareholder is businessman of Russian origin Timur Turlov. Ignoring inquiries on critical issues has become a recurring practice for the company.

On April 3, attorney Svetlana Oralbayeva announced that dozens of people have been recognized as victims in two criminal cases related to fraud within the Freedom Holding Corp. structure. The full video was published by KazTAG. According to the victims, the stolen funds were funneled to top managers of Freedom Finance. The lawyer argued that these schemes could not have been executed without Turlov’s knowledge. Victims also accused Freedom’s top management of transferring funds offshore and running a financial pyramid.

It was further revealed that one client who trusted Freedom Finance executive Vitaliy Svetovoy eventually lost his money and committed suicide in Petropavlovsk (KazTAG later learned on April 11 that the criminal case regarding the suicide had been closed on January 8 — just three days after the case against Svetovoy was initiated). Svetovoy has been in custody since January 23.

It also became known that another top manager of Freedom Finance has become a suspect in a criminal case — Temirlan Bekov, the head of the division responsible for training investors and employees of Freedom Finance in Uzbekistan. His case is currently with the Department of Economic Investigations (DER) in Astana. Meanwhile, victims involved in criminal cases against Freedom’s top managers expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the investigations. The victims’ lawyer compared Turlov to Sergey Mavrodi, the notorious creator of the largest financial pyramid in CIS history, MMM, and accused him of funneling depositors’ money from Kazakhstan into offshore accounts. After these publications, the KazTAG editorial office received a threat on April 4.

That same day — April 4 — an 84-year-old resident of North Kazakhstan Region, Aida Lukyanova, speaking on behalf of pensioners, appealed to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, urging him to put an end to Turlov’s activities in Kazakhstan.

On April 9, KazTAG reported that yet another criminal case linked to Freedom Finance had been opened — involving the issuance of IINs to Russian citizens. On April 12, KazTAG reported that police had begun an investigation within that case.

On April 10, during a press conference in Astana, victims of Freedom Finance’s top managers refuted Turlov’s false claims that their children had supposedly lost their parents’ money on the stock market and tried to “corrupt” company employees. Notably, invited representatives of the Presidential Administration, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Agency for Financial Monitoring, and the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARRFR) did not attend the press conference. At the same event, Petropavlovsk resident Aida Lukyanova stated that Freedom Finance top manager Vitaliy Svetovoy tricked her into giving him money under the pretext of a check by the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

On August 23, KazTAG, citing a source, reported that investigative actions were carried out at the Freedom Broker office in Almaty as part of the case involving Kazakhtelecom and Kcell shares.

On April 19, 2025, a KazTAG source reported that on April 18 a search had been conducted at the office of AKASHI DATA CENTER PLC, located in Abu Dhabi Plaza in Astana. The operations were part of a criminal investigation into large-scale fraud. Officers examined the office and reviewed financial and corporate documents. Law enforcement representatives confirmed this information, specifying that the investigation is being led by the police of Astana’s Baikonyr district.

On April 23, 2025, KazTAG reported that after searches at AKASHI DATA CENTER, the police launched yet another criminal case involving large-scale fraud by a former employee of a construction subcontractor linked to the development of the data center — whose beneficiary is businessman of Russian origin Timur Turlov. This time the crime was committed in Astana’s Nurinsky district and involved the company VestaStroyService. The AKASHI DATA CENTER website lists VestaStroyService as the project’s general contractor.

According to data from Kompra — a service for verifying the reliability of Kazakhstan’s counterparties — the founder and director of VestaStroyService is Stanislav Vasilyev, while the former founder was the company Kazakhstan Infrastructure, whose founder was listed as Stanislav Mashagin — the current head of AKASHI DATA CENTER. On May 14, official confirmation of the new criminal case in Nurinsky district was received.

Stas Mashagin, identified as director on the AKASHI DATA CENTER PLC website, is a business partner of Turlov. He had already been mentioned in earlier KazTAG materials. On March 13, 2024, KazTAG reported that the Russian state corporation Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) demanded compensation from Turlov for asset stripping in Russia.

Later, Turlov publicly expressed “surprise” over the DIA’s claims, using the word “allegedly” regarding the information published by the agency. On March 18, it became known that Turlov’s assets had been frozen in connection with the asset-stripping case in Russia. On March 20, journalist Mikhail Kozachkov reported that Stanislav Mashagin — a shareholder of the Russian company Volga Capital JSC, suspected of embezzlement in the bank Association and accused of helping Turlov move assets out of Russia — is jointly developing a project in Kazakhstan with Turlov. On February 9, 2024, KazTAG reported that Turlov requested funding from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for a data center project — specifically AKASHI Data Center PLC. At that time, the listed beneficiaries were Timur Ruslanovich Turlov, Olga Sergeyevna Baskakova, Stanislav Olegovich Mashagin, and Aleksey Igorevich Burnashev. Documentation was reportedly being prepared.

KazTAG had repeatedly reported on the possible involvement of Freedom executives in fraudulent schemes.

In September 2023, KazTAG reported that a man resembling Freedom Holding Corp. president Askar Tashtitov appeared in a video with a man identified by the distributors of the clip as Olzhas Ashykbayev, who had been convicted in a USD 22 million fraud case. According to some reports, he earned this money by uncovering certain “bypass schemes” of FFIN Brokerage Services, but the money was taken from him, he was accused of fraud, and subsequently imprisoned.

Remarkably, the real Tashtitov confirmed in court that he had met with Ashykbayev, who testified that the head of Freedom Holding Corp. had offered him USD 200,000 in relation to the case. KazTAG later reported that two U.S. government agencies had launched investigations into Kazakhstan’s Freedom Holding. In spring 2024, it became known that the ARRFR refused to approve Tashtitov’s candidacy, citing unresolved issues. On April 2, KazTAG reported that the ARRFR also refused to approve the candidacy of Farkhat Sarsekeyev for the position of managing director of Freedom Bank Kazakhstan JSC.

On May 21, 2025, journalist Mikhail Kozachkov stated that Freedom Bank clients had begun receiving “letters of happiness,” informing them that the financial institution planned to seize their funds due to some alleged “system error.”

According to the journalist, the bank claimed that certain transactions had not passed through the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) and therefore were being nullified, with the profits confiscated by the bank. He attached a copy of the “letter,” signed by the director of the Kyzylorda branch of Freedom Bank Kazakhstan, A.Zh. Zhetpisbay. The editorial office reached out to KASE for comment. KazTAG also sent inquiries to Turlov’s press service, which controls Freedom Bank Kazakhstan, as well as directly to Turlov via Threads. KASE responded within hours, denying any involvement, while — as usual — no answers were received from Turlov or his press service.

Maria Sharapova