Patokh Chodiev Cleared By Belgian Parliamentary Inquiry

Patokh Chodiev, the Kazakh billionaire, has been cleared of allegations that he may have inappropriately obtained Belgian citizenship and influenced the introduction of a new plea bargain law. A Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (PIC) into the “Kazakhgate” affair found that there had been no undue political influence exerted when Belgium extended its plea bargain (“transaction pénale”) law in 2011. The PIC also found that the process of granting Belgian citizenship to Chodiev had been correctly followed and there were no grounds to revoke it. The investigating committee was established in 2016 following media reports that the French Government had sought to influence Belgian lawmakers over the...