Swiss probe Kazakh president's son-in-law

Swiss authorities are investigating the son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for money laundering, the lawyer representing a group of citizens from the oil-rich central Asian state said Friday. "The office of the attorney general of Switzerland opened a criminal investigation in September 2010 into allegations of money laundering against Timur Kulibayev, one of his associates, Arvind Tiku, and others," said Bruno de Preux, a Swiss lawyer, in a statement.
A spokeswoman from Switzerland's attorney general's office said she "could not confirm" the case. According to de Preux, the probe focuses on 600 million dollars held in Swiss bank accounts and laundered in Zurich, Geneva and Lugano. These funds were allegedly obtained from bribes and other proceeds paid to Kulibayev between 2000 and 2005 over the sale of state-owned oil and gas assets. During that period, Kulibayev was chairman of the state-owned KazTransOil before becoming deputy chairman of the state-owned KazMunaiGaz.