Europe's spies and the Kazakh Trio, a Love Story, Part 2: Succession

The early-October appointment of businessman Shukhrat Ibragimov as chief executive of mining conglomerate Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), owner of the assets of the former ENRC group, completed the slow-motion succession of ENRC's three founders, Alexander Mashkevitch, Patokh Chodiev Alijan Ibragimov, who have come to be known as the Kazakh Trio.

Shukhrat Ibragimov - the third son of Alijan Ibragimov, who died in 2021 - had been working alongside his father as his chosen successor since 2014. But he is having to deal with a process of fragmentation among the majority of the founding Trio's heirs.

Loss of interest

As head of ERG, Shukhrat Ibragimov is working in coordination with Patokh Chodiev's only son, Sabir Chodiev, who is deputy chief executive of the group and its first deputy general director in Kazakhstan. Most of the other children of the founding Trio have shown little interest in involving themselves in the management of the huge conglomerate, however. According to our sources, neither of the two daughters of Israeli-Kazakh businessman Alexander Mashkevitch plans to take his place on the ERG board for the time being. As for Patokh Chodiev's oldest daughter, Mounissa Chodieva - who took her father's place as a director of ERG for a while – she is devoting her time to her own investment activities from London.

Following the spectacular legal actions that gave the founding Trio its hour of glory and swelled the coffers of London-based private investigation companies, the founders' children are tending to take a more reserved position.

Mounissa Chodieva remains on good terms with private investigation veteran Charles Carr, head of consulting firm C and F Partners,which received a major investment from the Chodiev camp via long-term business associate Amre Youness [KO, 17/12/24].

Image concerns

Shukhrat Ibragimov's main concern is to protect his own reputation. That task has been made more difficult by an onslaught of fake news being placed and amplified by the Chodiev camp [KO, 22/08/25]. 

Ibragimov can, however, still count on his partnership with Kenges Rakishev (aka Kenes Rakishev), who also knows his way round the London investigations firms. Rakishev, the majority shareholder in Kazakhstan's BTA Bank, helped Ibragimov take up a majority position in the Shubarkol coal mine this past September, buying the stake from oligarch Timur Kulibayev. That followed a substantial investment by Shukhrat Ibragimov in February 2023 in instant noodles producer Borealis Foods, where Rakishev's Oxus Acquisition Corp has a majority stake.

Like Kulibayev, Rakishev, who has good connections in London, is a client of Schillings, the defence reputation company founded by lawyer Keith Schilling, where the staff is a blend of lawyers and investigators. The company, which is used to having Russian and Central Asian clients, has poached a number of consultants from C and F Partners.

Information campaign target

Rakishev has in the past been a target of negative disinformation campaigns, including criticism of his role in recovering stolen funds from Mukhtar Ablyazov, the exiled oligarch whom UK courts determined had embezzled billions from BTA Bank [UK Supreme Court, 21/10/15].

The Kazakh government and BTA enlisted investigations companies Arcanum Global Intelligence and Diligence to help them track down Ablyazov, who had gone into hiding in France.

More discreetly, Chodiev also instructed Eitan Arusy, former deputy managing director of Arcanum, and Amit Forlit’s company Gadot information service to conduct operations against Ablyazov’s wife in Italy [Blitz Quotidiano, 18/07/13].

The same networks that have published over 158 articles across 109 low-quality fake news websites about Ibragimov have also started to target Rakishev over their business relationship.

Furthermore, those networks have also targeted Timur Tokayev, son of the President. The Chodiev faction historically held close ties with former Prime Minister Karim Massimov - who is now serving a prison sentence for treason and is attempting to delegitimise Tokayev’s government in the West.