Leaked correspondence between Switzerland-based lender Reyl Intesa Sanpaolo and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) shows that Switzerland’s financial regulator has investigated Reyl for “weaknesses in the area of money laundering” and alleged failures in its handling of high-risk accounts, an investigation by OCCRP, Le Monde, Paper Trail Media, and IrpiMedia reveals.
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Among the bank’s many questionable clients, some were linked to autocratic regimes and corruption allegations in Central Asia, according to the leaked documents.
The regulator asked the bank about Dinara Kulibayeva–the daughter of Kazakhstan’s former President Nursultan Nazarbayev–who is now under criminal investigation in Switzerland over the source of the tens of millions of francs she holds at Reyl. (Her lawyer told OCCRP she has always cooperated with authorities in declaring the source of her wealth).
Reyl also counted among its clients the son-in-law of another Central Asian strongman, Uzbekistan’s former President Islam Karimov. Lola Karimova, his daughter, and Timur Tillyaev, her husband, came under the spotlight when in 2012, FINMA warned Swiss wealth management firm Fidurhône—where Tillyaev and Karimova were clients—that the relationship presented “particularly increased” reputational risks.
Questionable Content
Nursultan Nazarbayev ruled Central Asia’s largest nation with an iron grip for almost three decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union, consolidating power in his hands while suppressing freedom of speech and political opposition. A closed circle of businessmen linked to him were able to amass enormous fortunes and influence. OCCRP previously found that he set up private charitable foundations that controlled assets worth almost $8 billion.
His daughter, Dinara Kulibayeva, settled in Switzerland in 2007, where she entrusted part of her fortune to Reyl, the leaked correspondence reveals. François Reyl personally managed the relationship for several years.
But last year, Swiss regulators said they wanted to know where the tens of millions of francs deposited in Kulibayeva’s account came from. In May 2024, FINMA ordered Reyl to hand over its “complete client files” on the account and one other account held by Kulibayeva’s Luxembourg-based company, Regulus Holdings S.A., to which Reyl granted a €25 million loan facility to buy real estate in France.
FINMA’s query followed the opening of criminal proceedings against Kulibayeva last April, after Reyl filed what’s called a “suspicious activity report” with Switzerland’s money laundering reporting office relating to activity on her accounts, correspondence between FINMA and the bank shows.
A lawyer for Kulibayeva told OCCRP that she had always cooperated fully with local authorities to provide information on the source of the funds she used to acquire her Swiss real estate.
“It is a matter of public record that our client's wealth originates from her shareholding in Halyk Bank, a Kazakh regulated financial institution, listed on the London Stock Exchange,” wrote the lawyer, Jean-Christophe Hocke. “This is also the case for the funds deposited with Reyl.”
In correspondence obtained by OCCRP, Reyl also told FINMA that Kulibayeva’s account was funded by dividend payments from Halyk Bank.
The leaked correspondence reveals that although Kulibayeva’s accounts were frozen in April last year, prosecutors gave Reyl permission to process around 650,000 francs ($760,500) through Kulibayeva’s account in May to cover her “personal expenses.”
Wealth Managed
Lola Karimova and Timur Tillyaev enjoyed a jet-setting lifestyle while her father, President Karimov, was in power in Uzbekistan. By 2013 they had settled in Geneva, she told the BBC in an interview.
After a 2012 warning concerning potential risks, FINMA asked Swiss wealth management firm Fidurhône to cut ties with them in 2014 after finding that their companies’ account balances had soared to 190 million francs, according to a decision later published by Switzerland’s Federal Department of Finance.
When Fidurhône refused to cut ties, FINMA threatened to remove the company’s license. Switzerland’s Federal Department of Finance later fined Fidurhône’s founding partner for failing to report suspicious account activity relating to Tillyaev.
In 2020, Tillyaev’s company Liobel Limited Inc. became a customer of Reyl, correspondence obtained by OCCRP reveals. Tillyaev opened his own account with the bank three years later. As of December 2023, one of the accounts held 83 million francs ($97 million).
In January 2024, regulators ordered Reyl to hand over records relating to Tillyaev’s accounts, as well as information about all customers “with a link to Uzbekistan.” The bank told FINMA it was reassessing Tillyaev’s accounts “due to potential high reputational risks” following the publication of negative news about Lola’s sister, Gulnara Karimova.
Tillyaev did not respond to a request for comment.
NOTE: This is an edited and shortened version of an article that appeared at OCCRP’s website on 9 April 2025.
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