The Chapman Papers

The Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan obtained evidence that proves the New York financier Dan Chapman and his Argentem Creek group of companies are knowingly participating in the long-running fraud perpetrated by Moldovan oligarchs, Anatoli Stati and Gabriel Stati.

This evidence, obtained through a court order issued in unrelated civil proceedings in Kazakhstan, comprises of hundreds of files and email communication between Chapman and his associates.

Chapman and his Argentem Creek group of companies financed the Statis’ litigation campaign purported to enforce a fraudulently obtained arbitral award against the Republic of Kazakhstan. For example, Chapman assisted the Statis by funding their efforts to escape trial on their fraud in the High Court of England in 2018.

Chapman is also assisting the Statis by disseminating a false narrative and financing a larger black PR campaign against the Republic of Kazakhstan. 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 has systematically repeated this lie 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 narrative and the Statis’ lies. Chapman hired a team of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. to attempt to peddle his lies and improperly influence members of the U.S. government.

These emails reveal that Chapman investigated the Statis years ago and has long established for himself that the Statis had been engaging in fraud in connection with their former Kazakh businesses.  

 

The Ministry of Justice is making public a small sample of these email communications for the first time. The language of these emails is startling, particularly when compared to Chapman’s ongoing 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. See 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. See  File 25.
  • The amounts of these “stripped monies” was between $500 million and $880 million, which Chapman and his team referred to as “leakage”. See 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. See 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”. See 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. See 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. See File 8.

These emails show that Chapman knows the story he has been telling the courts, the media and the public is false.

Chapman’s lies were 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.