BTA Bank Ex-Chair Ablyazov Says Georgian Stake Expropriated

Mukhtar Ablyazov, ex-chairman of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, asked a U.K. judge to order the lender to hand over documents explaining how his personal stake in the bank’s Georgian subsidiary was sold without his permission.

BTA, which has sued Ablyazov in Britain for fraud, “stood by” as the unit sold the former executive’s 27 percent stake to an entity with links to the Kazakh government, his lawyer, Charles Bear, said yesterday at a London court. The transfer is part of BTA’s attempt to expropriate Ablyazov’s wealth and may have violated a U.K. freezing order on his assets, Bear said.