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Belgian court lifts $21.5B freeze on Kazakh assets

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Belgian court lifts $21.5B freeze on Kazakh assets

The Court of First Instance in Brussels has allowed access to $21.5 billion of assets of Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund which were frozen due to a lawsuit launched by Moldovan businessmen Anatolie and Gabriel Stati, the Kazakh Ministry of Justice announced May 30.

The two men launched a lawsuit against Kazakhstan in 2010 demanding $4 billion compensation after their oil business was nationalized by Kazakhstan. They won a case in Sweden in 2013 and were awarded nearly $500 million. The two men then launched a broader campaign which led to the current asset freeze. The Belgian court now has ruled that the requested compensation amount should be limited to $530 million and effectively lifted the freeze on the Kazakhstan National Fund's assets.

The Brussels decision is the second legal blow to the Statis in recent months: A U.K. court found in June 2017 that there was sufficient evidence that their arbitration claims in Sweden were based on fraud and requested a further review in October.