British Court enforces payment of almost $400 million by Mukhtar Ablyazov to BTA Bank

The High Court of England has supported BTA Bank in its claims and ordered Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former head of the bank and now a fugitive banker, to return almost $400 million to the bank, RIA Novosti reports. "Ablyazov arranged a series of bogus deals to transferred over $300 million of the bank's investment funds to several shell companies on the British Virgin Islands. Ablyazov is personally responsible for the illegal embezzlement of the investments, besides, he was involved in the making of backdated documents to finalized the deals," the court's ruling says. The judge declared the arguments of Mukhtar Ablyazov lawyers was inconsistent and made the decision in favor of BTA Bank, ordering the fugitive banker to compensate all the inflicted losses. Ablyazov was arrested on an extradition request from Ukraine in the south of France near Cannes by French special forces on July 31. Ablyazov is wanted in Kazakhstan for embezzlement of almost $6 billion from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and other big financial frauds. He may face 13-year of prison with confiscation of property in Kazakhstan. At present Aix-en-Provence court is deciding on the extradition of Ablyazov. Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine are demanding his extradition.