A fugitive Kazakh oligarch wanted over a $5billion bank fraud was tracked down to a French villa when a glamorous female friend unwittingly led detectives hundreds of miles to his hideout.
Mukhtar Ablyazov was held yesterday after paramilitary police swooped in on a luxury home in the town of Mouans Sartoux, near Nice in south-east France.
He is wanted in Kazakhstan on charges of siphoning off at least $5billion from BTA Bank, which based in the central Asian country's business capital, Almaty.
The 50-year-old has been wanted in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan over a string of allegations of fraud and organised crime since fleeing the country for London in 2009.
He disappeared from the UK in February 2012 just before a British court sentenced him to 22-months in jail for contempt of court in a financial fraud trial.
Sources say he was finally found when his blonde Ukrainian friend Olena Tischenko was spotted outside the High Court in London by private investigators hired by BTA on July 22.
She had attended a hearing defending legal action brought by the bank.
She left court shortly before 6pm and took a taxi to the Cornhill in the city before hailing a second cab to Heathrow.
At 10.30pm, she boarded a flight to Nice, where she was driven to her home.
There, she changed into a mini skirt and high heels and drove off around an hour later to the luxury Villa Neptune in Miramar on the Cote d'Azur.
She parked away from the villa and walked to the property at 3.07am, it was reported by The Evening Standard.
Around half an hour later, Ablyazov for spotted for the first time rearranging the bed in his underwear.
Ms Tischenko left the villa at lunchtime the following day to go to the beach before flying from Nice to Moscow that evening.
Investigators staked out Villa Neptune until Ablyazov drove to one of his other villas, saint Basile in Mouglis last Friday.
Mr Tischenko joined him there that evening and stayed the night.
The bank then contacted the French authorities on Monday to inform them they had found Ablyazov, who is wanted under an Interpol notice issued by the Ukraine.
Busted: Mukhtar Ablyazov was first spotted after 18 months on the run through the window of his luxurious Villa Neptune (above) rearranging the bed in his underwear
He later went to another of his properties, the 1816 Chemin de Castellaras in mouans-Sartoux, where he was surrounded by French special forces.
The police used 'powerful means' - including armoured vehicles and a plane - because Ablyazov was known to have a 'private militia' at his disposal, said Ms Legras, whose office focuses on international cases.
In the event, no shots were fired during the operation.
Ablyazov, who has been wanted by Interpol since 2009, was held on allegations of 'large-scale fraud in an organised group', Ms Legras said by phone, shortly after meeting with Ablyazov to explain the possible extradition process.
A former energy minister in his home country, Ablyazov later emerged as a prominent opponent of Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the energy-rich Central Asian nation since before the Soviet collapse.
Shortly after setting up a pro-reform party in 2001, Ablyazov was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of public office. However, he was pardoned by Mr Nazarbayev and released in 2003, vowing to stay out of politics - a promise he broke by funnelling money to the opposition.
Kazakhstan's prosecutors have described Ablyazov as the head of an extremist, criminal conspiracy bent on 'seizing power by inciting civil strife and hatred.' He is wanted there on charges of siphoning off at least $5billion from BTA Bank, which based in the central Asian country's business capital, Almaty
Olena Tischenko, the Ukrainian friend of a fugitive Kazakh oligarch, lead detectives to his hideout in Nice
The prosecutor in Astana, the Kazakh capital, said Interpol had informed the government of Ablyazov's arrest, which was carried out at the request of Ukraine, where he is wanted on charges of alleged embezzlement of funds from a local branch of the BTA bank. He is also sought by Russia in connection with embezzlement charges involving BTA bank and a Russian company.
There was no extradition request from the UK, where Ablyazov was in February 2012 convicted of contempt of court after attempting to hide the extent of his wealth from a legal action taken by the now state-owned BTA bank in the hope of recovering some of the allegedly embezzled funds.
Mr Justice Teare, sitting in the High Court, said Ablyazov was accused of 'fraud on an epic scale' and had committed 'deliberate and substantial' contempts by breaching an asset-freezing order imposed to stop money vanishing before litigation concluded.
The conviction was upheld at the Court of Appeal last November, where senior judge Lord Justice Maurice Kay said Ablyazov had shown 'rare cynicism and deviousness' as he fought the claims against him and ordered him stripped of assets worth more than £150million.
Mr Ablyazov's property portfolio in Britain is alone worth more than £63million. His Bishops Avenue property — Carlton House — is worth £17million and is in a street nicknamed Billionaires' Row.
Taken: Ablyazov's mansion in Hampstead, which has a 50ft ballroom and a Turkish bath, is one of several he bought in a spree financed allegedly using fake loans, backdated documents and offshore accounts
Taken: Ablyazov's mansion in Hampstead, which has a 50ft ballroom and a Turkish bath, is one of several he bought in a spree financed allegedly using fake loans, backdated documents and offshore accounts
The mansion has a 50ft ballroom and a Turkish bath, and is one of several he bought in a spree financed allegedly using fake loans, backdated documents and offshore accounts.
He also has a £1m apartment in Albert Court, closet to Lord's cricket ground; and Oaklands Park - a 100-acre estate on the edge of Windsor Great Park with tennis courts and helicopter pad.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Madiyar Ablyazov, the former banker's son, said he feared what would happen if his father were deported to Kazakhstan.
'We beg the French authorities not to grant Kazakhstan our father. He is a man of honour, who has been fighting all his life, and sacrificed so much, for freedom and democracy in Kazakhstan,' the younger Ablyazov wrote. 'We are afraid for his life.'
Ablyazov's arrest came after the deportation of his wife and young daughter from Italy to Kazakhstan caused a political crisis in Rome last month. Because France has no extradition agreement with Kazakhstan, Ms Legras, the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor, said she is focusing on the extradition request from Ukraine for now.
Ablyazov denies wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated.
Simon Tomlinson
www.dailymail.co.uk
