New Evidence Reveals Dan Chapman’s Knowing Participation in Stati Fraud

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan is releasing new evidence that proves that New York financier Dan Chapman and his Argentem Creek group of companies (collectively, “Chapman”) are knowingly participating in the long-running fraud perpetrated by Moldovan oligarchs, Anatoli Stati and Gabriel Stati. 

 

As previously reported, the Republic filed a lawsuit against Chapman and his Argentem Creek companies in the United States in June 2020, after discovering that Chapman became aware of and decided to knowingly support the Statis’ fraud schemes. In December 2020, Outrider Management LLC, an independent U.S. investor that the Statis also defrauded, joined the lawsuit, and asserted its own claims against Chapman for his role in the fraud.    

 

Chapman, it is now known, has a direct monetary incentive in perpetuating the Statis’ fraud, given that he stands to receive a 70% share of any monies that the Statis collect on their fraudulent arbitral award.  One way that Chapman assisted the Statis was funding their efforts to escape trial on their fraud in the High Court of England in 2018.

 

Another way that Chapman is assisting the Statis is by disseminating a false story.  According to Chapman:  the Statis did not engage in any fraud, and the Republic supposedly invented the fraud allegations to avoid paying the Statis.  Chapman repeated this false story in the courts and the media.  He even launched a website – www.tristangate.com – that purports to tell “the truth” about the case but in fact just repeats his false story and the Statis’ lies. Chapman hired a team of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. to attempt to peddle his false story and improperly influence members of the U.S. government.

 

On 16 November 2021, Chapman’s false story was exposed when the Brussels Court of Appeal in Belgium issued its judgment that conclusively determined that the Statis in fact have engaged in the massive fraudulent scheme asserted by the Republic, and defrauded not only the arbitral tribunal but also the Swedish courts during the prior annulment proceedings.    

 

Now, the new evidence being released by the Republic shows that Chapman has long known that his story is false.

 

The New Evidence

 

The Ministry of Justice has obtained hundreds of files through a court order issued in unrelated civil proceedings in Kazakhstan. Preliminary analysis has revealed hundreds of files directly relevant to Chapman’s involvement in the Stati case.

 

These files reveal that Chapman investigated the Statis years ago and has long suspected the Statis of engaging in fraud in connection with their former Kazakh businesses.   

 

The language of these past communications is startling, particularly when compared to Chapman’s present false story that the Statis did not engage in any fraud.  For example:

 

• Chapman and his team discussed that there was a “fraud case” against the Statis concerning their operations in Kazakhstan [File 77]
• Chapman and his team discussed that the Statis engaged in a “systematic stripping” of the monetary assets of their two Kazakh companies – it is these same monies which, it is now known, were stolen by the Statis as part of their fraud [File 25]
• The amounts of these “stripped monies” was between $500 million and $880 million, which Chapman and his team referred to as “leakage” [File 60 and File 62]
• Chapman referred to one Stati company used in the scheme as a “laundry company” – meaning the Statis used it for money laundering [File 789]
• Chapman and his team discussed that there also was a “fraud case” against the Statis in connection with their issuance of the Laren Notes in 2009, what Chapman called the “Tap Note” [File 57]
• Chapman was told that the Statis had invested only $10 million of their own monies in Kazakhstan – not the $1 billion figure that the Statis repeatedly and falsely have claimed [File 47]
• “We got him!” is what was communicated to Chapman in reference to Anatolie Stati, when his team uncovered key elements of what are now known to be the Statis’ fraud schemes [File 8]

This new evidence shows that Chapman knows the story he has been telling the courts, the media and the public is false. 

 

It also complements the substantial progress that the Republic has made in recent years in obtaining evidence of the Statis’ fraud and bringing it to the attention of the courts.  For example:

 

• In April 2019, the Statis’ former Chief Financial Officer, Artur Lungu, testified under oath that Anatolie Stati had repeatedly lied to his auditors, KPMG, to conceal the fraudulent related-party transactions through which the Statis stripped hundreds of millions of dollars from Kazakhstan;
• In August 2019, KPMG invalidated all of its audit reports for the Statis’ falsified financial statements – 18 reports covering three years of financial statements – after it reviewed Mr. Lungu’s testimony and conducted its own independent investigation of the Statis’ fraud;
• In January 2021, the courts of Luxembourg stayed efforts by the Statis to enforce their fraudulent arbitral award until the conclusion of the ongoing criminal investigation of the Statis’ fraud by the Luxembourg authorities;
• In October 2021, the Statis were forced to abandon their improper attempt to seize the Republic’s diplomatic property in Washington, D.C., after the Republic demonstrated in court that the Statis’ had based this attempt on “objectively false” statements; and
• On 16 November 2021, Kazakhstan obtained the above-referenced judgment from the Belgium Court of Appeals.

           

Commenting on the recent developments, Kazakhstan’s Vice-Minister of Justice Almat Madaliyev said:

 

“The judgment of the Belgium Court of Appeal conclusively determined the Statis’ fraud.  Combined with the new evidence released today, it is impossible for Chapman to honestly defend the Statis or claim that the fraud does not exist.  Indeed, to the contrary, this new evidence shows that Chapman himself has long-suspected the Statis of engaging in fraud.  Yet instead of taking action against the Statis, Chapman flipped and has been helping them perpetuate their fraud schemes.  He did this to try to advance his own financial interests. These actions are unconscionable and a direct attack on the rule of law.  We look forward to taking further steps to bring Chapman and the Statis to justice.”