While Timur Turlov publicly cultivates the image of a conscientious billionaire and a "white-collar" businessman with an American reputation, a massive investment scandal is unfolding in Kazakhstan, potentially becoming the largest financial fiasco for trusting depositors in recent years.
In February–April 2025, dozens of deceived clients of Freedom Finance began to come forward in the public domain, claiming losses amounting to millions of tenge and citing two criminal cases related to fraud. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, at the center of the schemes are key managers of Turlov’s company — Vitaliy Svetovoy and Temerlan Bekov, who dealt with clients on behalf of the company and were closely tied to its internal infrastructure.
The essence of the scheme is simple and, because of that, even more outrageous. Potential investors were offered supposedly legitimate investment products from Freedom Finance. Documents were processed in the company’s offices, complete with logos, stamps, and the involvement of staff. The money was either transferred to some «platform» account or directly to the personal accounts of the managers. What followed was a classic scenario — the accounts disappeared, people resigned, and the money evaporated.
Here’s what one of the victims said in a video interview with KazTAG: «When I realized that I had transferred 20 million tenge to a private individual’s account, it was already too late. I was told that everything was processed through Freedom. The manager from the company personally brought the paperwork.»
More than 40 people have given similar testimonies. The total damage in the two cases exceeds half a billion tenge, and these are only the official complaints. According to available data, since January 23, Svetovoy has been in custody, and an investigation is underway regarding another top manager of Freedom — Temerlan Bekov, head of the educational division in Uzbekistan.
Turlov’s silence — protecting business or awareness?
What about Timur Turlov? The billionaire, head of a publicly traded American company and, as claimed, a «man with American principles,» has not yet made a single public statement regarding the criminal cases initiated against his subordinates.
Instead, there are threats to journalists. Specifically, after publications about the possible involvement of Freedom’s structures in financial manipulations, the editorial office of Ulysmedia reported receiving a letter with threats from Freedom Finance, demanding the removal of critical articles and hinting at «possible consequences.»
«This is no longer just a story about individual fraudsters. This is about a business where a structure positioning itself as an American financial institution cannot or does not want to control its top executives,» claims one of Kazakhstan’s stock market analysts.
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In early April, lawyer Svetlana Oralbayeva, representing the interests of victims of the «Freedom Broker Service» firm, stated that dozens of citizens have been recognized as victims in two criminal cases related to manipulations within Freedom Holding Corp. structures. According to them, depositors’ funds were transferred to the benefit of senior company managers, and the scheme, in the lawyer’s opinion, could not have been implemented without the knowledge of its head — Timur Turlov.
The investigations involve Vitaliy Svetovoy, a former Freedom executive arrested in January, and Temerlan Bekov — head of the educational unit in Uzbekistan, whose case is being handled by the DER of Astana. One deceived client, who trusted Svetovoy, lost their savings and subsequently took their own life in Petropavlovsk.
The lawyer compared Turlov to the infamous Mavrodi and accused him of orchestrating a scheme to siphon money from Kazakhstanis into offshore accounts. Following publications on this topic, the editorial office of KazTAG reported receiving threats.
Bekov and Svetovoy — managers with special powers
Vitaliy Svetovoy is a highly controversial figure. For several years, he was the public face of Freedom’s investment division in Kazakhstan. According to media reports, he participated in negotiations with VIP clients, managed investment portfolios, and spoke at closed seminars. His business cards were formatted to Freedom’s corporate standards, and some clients claim he was recommended directly by the head office in Almaty.
Temerlan Bekov was also not an ordinary employee — he presented himself as a «senior financial consultant» and, as alleged, had access to the internal systems of the brokerage platform, allowing him to create the appearance of legitimate transactions.
According to the investigation, both used the company’s infrastructure: offices, corporate emails, documents, and access passes. This suggests that the fraud occurred within the company and with its resources, not on the sidelines of the business or without the owner’s knowledge.
In August 2024, an internal audit was conducted at JSC «Freedom Finance» regarding executive director Vitaliy Svetovoy. According to the company, he allegedly offered clients to transfer funds directly to his personal accounts, promising more profitable investments. In reality, as per the company’s version, he spent the money on personal needs, including debt repayment. The internal investigation concluded with his dismissal, and the materials were handed over to law enforcement.
However, according to KazTAG, this version was likely created by «Freedom Finance» itself as an attempt to simulate an investigation and «shift the blame» onto the employees exposed in the scandal.
«Freedom Finance» itself issued a sharp statement, characterizing publications about the scandals involving Svetovoy and Bekov as «blackmail» and «an attempt at corporate pressure.» The company claims that both former top managers acted independently, without the knowledge of the leadership. The cases are being investigated by the Financial Monitoring Agency, with assistance from the regulator — the Agency for Financial Market Development.
Meanwhile, the victims assert that such scams could not have occurred without the involvement of senior management. Against this backdrop, a logical question arises: are we dealing with a couple of rogue crooks, or is this a symptom of systemic rot?
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that Timur Turlov has previously been associated with unreliable partners. For instance, he brought his long-time acquaintance from Russia, Stanislav Mashagin, to Kazakhstan. Together, they planned to build a data center (COD) and even sought funding from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan. However, it soon emerged that Mashagin had previously been convicted for involvement in the embezzlement of funds from a regional Russian bank. At the last moment, the DBK refused the loan.
This is not an isolated case. Another former Freedom executive is mentioned, who left the country under murky circumstances. The name is already hard to recall — but the trend is alarming.
So, who are Svetovoy and Bekov? Lone fraudsters or cogs in a much larger and systemic scheme built under the cover and with the acquiescence of Turlov himself?
Freedom Finance as a transit hub for shadow capital
The revelations of 2025 are a continuation of a series of accusations leveled against Timur Turlov and his holding over the past three to four years. Recall that in 2021, the independent structure Hindenburg Research accused Freedom of a range of violations: concealing real revenue, manipulating commissions, imposing products on clients without disclosing risks, and using complex structures through offshore entities in Estonia, Cyprus, and Belize.
It should be understood that Freedom Finance is not just a broker. It is an ecosystem with a bank, insurance, media, and IT products, in which the client is entirely dependent on the «internal logic of the company.» Loss of control or internal corruption in such a system turns investments into a financial pyramid wrapped in licenses and PR projects.
As it turned out, the money of clients involved in the Svetovoy and Bekov scheme was also transferred abroad. One victim provided a statement showing funds being sent to an account in Dubai, registered to some «IT consulting partner.» Another case involved a transfer to a Latvian bank, long known for its operations with Russian capital.
Financial experts are convinced that such transfers are impossible without internal protocol access within Freedom. This confirms the concern that the system may have been initially built as a channel for the transit of shadow capital — possibly not only of Kazakh origin.
Reputation at risk
Freedom Finance actively cultivated an image of a company associated with the New York Stock Exchange, American IPOs, technological innovation, and transparency. In reality, it turned out that registration in Nevada allows avoiding real audits, and participation in NASDAQ is merely a listing that does not guarantee internal transparency.
Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, Turlov promotes the image of a new-era investor: he participates in political projects, heads the Chess Federation, collaborates with «Astana Hub» and philanthropists. This raises a logical question: why does a person with such an «American» background so persistently embed himself in the political landscape?
The scandals surrounding Freedom Finance in 2025 have finally stripped Timur Turlov of the mask of an impeccable technocrat. His structure finds itself at the epicenter of Kazakhstan’s largest investment crisis, and his subordinates are defendants in criminal cases. The victims themselves refer to the company as nothing less than a «money-laundering pyramid in an IT wrapper.»
While Turlov remains silent, clients lose money, media face threats, and offshore channels continue to operate. The main question remains unanswered: how many more people will become victims before the system collapses entirely?
The editorial team continues its investigation and urges anyone who has fallen victim to the schemes of Timur Turlov’s companies to contact us with evidence. Anonymity is guaranteed.
