Timur Turlov, the owner of the investment company Freedom Finance, officially renounced his Russian citizenship at the end of last year and became a citizen of Kazakhstan. At the same time, he stated that he had sold his Russian assets and focused on doing business in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Europe.
True, he was a little unlucky with Ukraine – in this country he was sanctioned as a person whose business is involved in the withdrawal of Russian capital from international sanctions and from Russia. And, if we discard all the near-patriotic husks from home-grown “experts”, then this very decision of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council regarding sanctions against Turlov suggests that he did not sell any business in Russia, but simply formally “shoved” it on his subordinates, continuing to control all financial flows, as before.
The same decision, or rather, the study of its details, suggests that the renunciation of Russian citizenship is nothing more than a symbolic gesture designed to remove all Turlov’s business structures from the pressure of international sanctions, which he actually cares much more than Ukrainian sanctions. More precisely, not even him, but the real beneficiaries of the structures declared to be the property of Timur Turlov. And here the knave Russian patriots, throwing stones at the “great investor” who has renounced Russian citizenship, will be even more disappointed. Because Turlov serves the capital of Russian officials, helping to withdraw them from the country. And all these citizenship tricks are nothing more than pure business. The asset in the form of a Russian passport brought losses and Turlov got rid of it.
And now to business. As you know, Timur Turlov is the main owner of the Freedom holding, which includes the Freedom Finance investment company, the Freedom24 online broker, Freedom Finance Bank. Freedom also owns a minority stake in the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange (9.76% after IPO in November 2021). Freedom Finance provides brokerage, depositary and dealer services mainly in Kazakhstan and Russia, specializing in the US securities market.
Last summer, Turlov announced that he was selling his Russian business, Freedom Finance investment company and Freedom Finance Bank, because they could not be part of an “American holding” due to sanctions. But the sale turned out strange. And it is best illustrated by the infographic of Turlov’s connections, which was posted by the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which informs about the presence or absence of sanctions against certain people.
Under the pressure of sanctions, Timur Turlov’s “laundry” moved from Russia to Kazakhstan
All these people are the Russian management of Timur Turlov. And he “sold” them a bank and an investment company in Russia. Formally, now he has nothing to do with Russian business, but in fact nothing has changed.
Under the pressure of sanctions, Timur Turlov’s “laundry” moved from Russia to Kazakhstan
As Timur Turlov said at the end of last year, when this whole procedure was formalized, he will now focus on business in Kazakhstan, where he has a branch of the investment group Freedom Holding Corp., registered in the USA and operating in Kazakhstan through Freedom Finance JSC , which is the sole participant of Freedom Finance Kazakhstan Bank JSC (former Kassa Nova Bank), Freedom Finance Insurance Insurance Company JSC, Freedom Finance Life Life Insurance Company JSC.
At the same time, he announced his intention to buy a bank in Ukraine and Europe. With banks, he was greatly let down by Ukrainian sanctions and the question hung in the air – although Turlov said that “the sanctions were imposed mechanically and unreasonably” and he was going to challenge them, he did not go further than statements. In February of this year, the news flashed that Turlov was buying the American investment bank Maxim Group LLC and its subsidiary Maxim Financial Advisors, but so far nothing has been heard about the completion of the transaction.
Why Turlov needed a bank in Ukraine is not entirely clear – his structures in this country are now experiencing difficulties, but with regard to a bank in Europe and the United States, it can be assumed with certainty. Because, in fact, the structures of Freedom Finance are nothing more than a gigantic laundry for Russian capital, acquired by everyone in understandable ways and in a terrible hurry, being withdrawn by their owners from a country that is rapidly sliding into a financial abyss. Last but not least, because of the sanctions.
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Now the operating office of Freedom Holding Corp is located in Kazakhstan, and Timur Turlov concentrated his main activities in this country, however, Freedom Holding has offices in other countries:
Under the pressure of sanctions, Timur Turlov’s “laundry” moved from Russia to Kazakhstan
But the main clientele of Turlov’s structures, as already mentioned, are Russians. And as of the end of February, about 80% of the clientele of the Russian branches of Freedom Holding either physically left for Kazakhstan or withdrew their capital there. So Turlov simply moved closer to the main flow of money, which is concentrated in Kazakhstan and needs to be managed.
In addition, in Kazakhstan, Timur Turlov has long been associated with local elites, for whom he does the same thing as for Russian ones – he legalizes corrupt capital and brings them to the United States and Europe. Here, Turlov is connected with Mukhtar Ablyazov, who fled the country, and Bulat Utemuratov, the former (?) owner of Kassa Nova Bank, whose interests in withdrawing money from Kazakhstan were served by Turlov.
However, Turlov farsightedly did not limit himself to cooperation with several clans – he established ties with all the elites, and after Ablyazov and some of Turlov’s clients were forced to flee the country, no one drowned the financier himself – it turned out that everyone needed him.
Now Timur Turlov is sticking out in every possible way the fact that his Freedom Holding is registered in the USA and operates absolutely cleanly and transparently, in accordance with the financial laws of the United States of America. For an inexperienced person, this is enough, but only few people understand that the United States is a federal state, where laws of the same name in different states can radically differ.
Freedom Holding Corp is indeed registered in the US. In the state of Nevada, which is famous for its fantastically liberal financial laws. And the head office of Freedom Holding Corp is located in Kazakhstan, which is also not distinguished by the strictness of laws, and especially by the supervision of their observance.
In addition, Timur Turlov for some reason carefully conceals the connection of the “American” Freedom Holding Corp with FFIN Brokerage Services, a Belize-based securities trading company also owned by Turlov. And for some reason, nowhere can you find reports on the scale of FFIN transactions with Freedom Holding Corp.
But FFIN’s own annual report should give Freedom Holding’s investors pause: in just one year, FFIN’s assets rose nearly 1,100 percent to over $2.5 billion. This is many times more than the assets of Freedom Holding. Should FFIN ever find itself in dire financial straits, Freedom Holding could be in serious trouble.
Freedom Holding Corp also has a branch in Cyprus, which also raises huge questions. The Financial Journalism Foundation report reads: “Freedom Finance Europe Limited, the Cyprus arm of the corporation, has achieved astronomical profit growth unmatched on Wall Street. Although the Cypriot division reported a loss of US$30,000 in 2017, by 2019 it had a profit of US$33.8 million. In 2020, the subsidiary’s revenue increased to $80.4 million… For the nine months of 2021 ended December 31, Freedom Holding reported net income of $90.1 million, of which $80.4 million came from the Cyprus subsidiary companies. It took only 13 employees and $6.3 million of capital to create this amount.”
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At the same time, the Financial Journalism Foundation emphasizes that the Russian and Kazakhstani offices (the report is dated 2022, before the “sale” of the Russian business by Turlov) “constantly experience problems with cash.”
All this is confirmed by the fact that Timur Turlov and his “American investment fund” are just a laundry for the withdrawal of Russian capital from the country. If until the beginning of 2022 this money was concentrated in the Russian branches of Freedom Holding Corp, then after the well-known events, the scheme had to be urgently changed. Hence the change of citizenship, and the “sale” of Russian assets. And the withdrawal of the main operating office to Kazakhstan. Where did 80% of the clients of Timur Turlov’s “laundry” Freedom Holding Corp.
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