A new home for the President’s daughter
Billionaire Dinara Kulibaeva is living in Switzerland under questionable circumstances – her father is the President of Kazakhstan.
BERN – Dinara Kulibaeva first hit the headlines in early 2010.
At the time, it was announced that the daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, had purchased a villa in Anières, a suburb of Geneva, for the equivalent of 61 million euros. The fabulously high purchase price caused a real stir in the media. Questions were raised: how did a Kazakh citizen even manage to get a residence permit in Switzerland, where the hurdles are usually set particularly high for non-European immigrants?
Politicians also took up the theme, and Genevan social-democratic Swiss National Assembly member Carlo Sommaruga asked the Swiss Federal Council if everything had been above board as far as Kulibaeva was concerned. He was reassured by the then Minister of Justice. Kulibaeva satisfied all the conditions to live and buy property in Switzerland, stated Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf during the National Assembly’s Question Time in June 2010. That seemed to be the end of the matter.
But now, according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, documents have appeared that indicate that the president’s daughter only got into Switzerland thanks to some pledges – which were never fulfilled. Officially, the authorities never release information about such cases, but the opaque manoeuvres by which Kulibaeva gained her first Swiss residence permit can be reconstructed with the aid of these documents.
Opaque manoeuvres
Kulibaeva received her first residence permit in Ticino. This was a short-stay permit for a maximum of 120 days within one year. Non-EU nationals only get permits like this under certain conditions, such as if they are highly-qualified specialists. This was precisely the exemption that Kulibaeva invoked at the time: supposedly, she wanted to live in Switzerland to work as Director of the company Viled International in Lugano. This company had only appeared on the commercial register shortly before, in May 2006. Officially, Viled was a subsidiary of a Kazakh company which ran boutiques for watches, jewellery and fashion.
On the Board of the newly-established Ticino branch sat Stefano Camponovo, a Ticino trustee with 50 directorship mandates, and lawyer Edy Grignola. On 11 August 2006, the pair wrote to the cantonal office for foreign workers, describing the future of their company in very glowing terms. They promised that Viled would conquer the entire European market from Ticino, that the canton would receive high tax revenues, and that Viled would initially hire ten employees and eventually even open their own factories in Ticino. Viled would, it was said in the letter, “make a significant and substantial contribution to the economy and the image of the Canton of Ticino.”
However, to make all this happen, Viled needed someone at the helm with all the necessary skills and knowledge, and apparently, only one person incorporated all these qualities: the daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan. As evidence of intent, the directors of Viled presented a contract which stated that Kulibaeva would be working for the equivalent of 98,000 euros a year – a modest sum for a woman whose fortune is estimated at over a billion dollars. The authorities moved fast.
Shortly afterwards, Kulibaeva was granted the desired short-term permit, with the consent of the Federal Office for Migration. Thus Dinara Kulibaeva, born on 19 August 1967 in Kazakhstan, was admitted to the central register of foreign citizens, under the number 0698.5196/4. The path from the Kazakh steppe to Ticino was laid. A rude awakening soon followed. Kulibaeva’s supposedly essential contribution at Viled was to be short-lived. Just 16 months later, her residence status changed: on 21 April 2008, the authorities gave her a permit valid for a full year. This had just become possible because at the beginning of 2008, an amendment to the law on foreign nationals came into force, which Kulibaeva immediately put into practice.
The new Article 30 allows cantons to grant permits for longer periods of time if they are “in the public interest”.
Dummy company for a residence permit?
In the case of Kulibayeva, the public interest took the form of tax revenue: the canton made a flat-rate tax agreement with her. Apparently, Viled became superfluous. In any case, the liquidation of the company began in 2011, and in December 2012, it was removed from the commercial register. There is no known evidence that the company ever engaged in major activities in Ticino.
Was Viled just a dummy company, created to clandestinely acquire a residency permit? Or did Viled actually develop something in Ticino? These and other questions remain unanswered by Stefano Camponovo, Ex-Chairman of Viled International. The multi-director from Chiasso did not respond to enquiries. Were the Ticino authorities deceived? That conclusion is “possible”, but not necessarily so, says Attilio Cometta, head of the population section of the cantonal administration. Although abuse of residence permits must be combated, the resources of the authorities to investigate “pledges”, as in the Viled case, are limited, says Cometta – who was not responsible for the section in 2007.
Ticino didn’t benefit from their rich taxpayer for long. She soon moved on to Geneva, where she acquired her 7960 m2 property in late 2009. Bad news for Kulibaeva: It was recently announced that she has become the target of an investigation concerning a matter in her home country. The office of the public prosecutor in Geneva is currently handling allegations of fraud from Kazakhstan.
With the kind permission of NZZ
Rulers of Kazakhstan: the Nazarbayev clan
Nursultan Nazarbayev was already President of the former Soviet Republic before the fall of the Iron Curtain. In 1990, he was confirmed in office, and further extended his authority in the subsequent years. Today, Nazarbayev can be elected as many times as he wants. Two years ago, the Kazakh parliament, which is controlled by his own party, awarded him the title “Leader of the Nation”. Kazakhstan is courted by the West, due to its rich oil and gas deposits. The 72-year-old is the head of a billion-dollar family clan, which includes his three daughters Dariga, Aliya and Dinara and their husbands. It is seen as a certainty that the President will only relinquish his office to make way for a member of his clan. But the “Leader of the Nation” has no son. Accordingly, there has been speculation that one of his daughters will succeed him. Dinara is his middle daughter, and sits on the boards of several universities to see that her father’s ideas prevail. Her husband runs a business empire. The couple is among the richest in the world.
Aliya, the President’s youngest daughter, is married to a businessman. Her marriage to the son of the former President of Kyrgyzstan was a failure. Dariga, the oldest daughter, has probably forfeited her chance to the “throne” because of a scandal. Her husband’s star rose thanks to his connection to her, but he abused his power to put pressure on other businesses. He was exiled and is now threatening disclosures about the Kazakh power structures from abroad. Dariga founded her own party, but in the meantime, this has already been dissolved. Her marriage was also annulled, under pressure from her father. (sz)
