Check to the President
The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia has filed a lawsuit against a Kazakh oligarch who was recently elected president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE)
Checkmate to the President
The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia has filed a lawsuit in the Tverskoy Court of Moscow against Kazakh oligarch Timur Turlov and his companies Freedom Holding Corp., Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., and W-Empirical Holding.
The court records state: "Administrative plaintiff: Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. Administrative defendant: W-Empirical Holding Corp., Freedom Holding Corp., Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., Turlov T. R., Shchukin A. S."
No other details have been reported so far. The preliminary hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for October 15.
The press service of Freedom Holding stated that the company is studying the lawsuit.
"The Prosecutor General's Office has filed a civil lawsuit against the holding and a number of other companies. We are currently puzzled by the substance of this lawsuit and its correctness. We will study this matter. We do not see any significant risks to the holding's operations. We have no assets in Russia, and the holding itself does not conduct activities in the Russian Federation," the statement reads.
Timur Turlov is a Kazakh billionaire of Russian origin, the founder of the financial holding Freedom Holding Corp., and the recently elected president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
Turlov was born in Moscow in 1987, but since 2011 he has mostly lived in Kazakhstan, and in 2022 he renounced his Russian citizenship in favor of Kazakh citizenship. He founded the company in 2008. Today, it is a financial holding with assets of over $13 billion, operating in 22 countries (USA, Kazakhstan, EU, etc.). Its shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
According to Forbes Kazakhstan for 2026, his fortune is estimated at $5.2 billion (6th place on the list of the country's richest people). In the global Forbes ranking, he held 547th place.
On September 26, 2026, during the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, he was elected president of the International Chess Federation, succeeding Arkady Dvorkovich. He became the youngest president in the history of the organization.
Since 2023, Turlov has headed the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and was the founding president of the International School Chess Federation.