By empty (2/6/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Two former senior executives of Nurbank, one of Kazakhstan\'s largest banks, have gone missing and are presumed kidnapped, the men\'s wives said Monday. In an open letter to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Armangul Kapasheva, the wife of Nurbank ex-deputy chairman Zholdas Timraliyev, said he had gone missing Jan. 31 after being summoned to a meeting with deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliyev.
Two former senior executives of Nurbank, one of Kazakhstan\'s largest banks, have gone missing and are presumed kidnapped, the men\'s wives said Monday. In an open letter to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Armangul Kapasheva, the wife of Nurbank ex-deputy chairman Zholdas Timraliyev, said he had gone missing Jan. 31 after being summoned to a meeting with deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliyev. She also accused Aliyev of having temporarily abducted her husband on a separate occasion two weeks earlier, when he allegedly threatened to shoot Timraliyev unless he called the owner of a major business center in downtown Almaty, demanding he hand over the business to Aliyev. Timraliyev was later detained in a fitness center and held overnight, handcuffed to an exercise machine, his wife said. Aliyev was unavailable for comment through the foreign ministry all Monday. A spokesman for the ministry said he was aware of the allegations, but couldn\'t comment. Six companies, including Almaty\'s leading cable channel Alma-TV and two sugar plants, hold stakes between 8.6% and 9.4% each in the bank. Mukhtar Aliyev, whose son is married to Nazarbayev\'s eldest daughter Dariga, holds 6.73% of the bank\'s shares, according to data on the Kazakh stock exchange Web site. Nurali Aliyev, Nazarbayev\'s 22 year old grandson, was appointed to the board of directors two weeks ago, following the resignations of Timraliyev and Gilimov. The two men\'s wives said that financial police had subsequently ransacked their homes in search of documents. Kapasheva also said that Almaty police had refused to accept her report of her husband\'s disappearance. Almaty police said Monday they have been looking for Timraliyev but hadn\'t started searching for Gilimov yet, as he hadn\'t been reported missing. Nurbank, Kazakhstan\'s seventh-largest by assets, had made its debut on the international capital markets last year, issuing a $150 million five-year Eurobond. (Dow Jones NewsWires)