The London Stock Exchange should have a moral duty not to back criminals like CHODIEV, MASHKEVICH and IBRAGIMOV and their global extraction company Eurasian National Resources Corporation (ENRC).

ENRC appears to be well on its way to becoming listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) – when will the LSE draw the line and take a moral standing?

By backing companies owned by tycoon ‘criminals’, western democratic principles and moral values are disregarded. We have a moral duty to uphold – in that we should not be promoting the interests of criminals whether we gain from it or not. What kind of double standard message are we sending out to the developing world if our country’s well-established institutions are willing to back some of the biggest criminal-founded global businesses, for economic advantages, while we stand up against those who conflict with our interests?

ENRC is a holding company owned and run by a trio of corrupt Kazak billionaires who have reaped the reward of financially supporting a despotic president, Nazarbayev. They have plundered billions from Kazakhstan, which is abundant in oil and precious metals, at the expense of the impoverished, suppressed population. They have earned themselves reams of negative press relating to corruption, money laundering charges, bribes, links to criminal organisations in Russia, allegations of involvement in murder, insider dealings and interference with the due political process in Kazakhstan.

They run dubious mining operations in developing countries that disregard basic human rights and have been accused of child exploitation, particularly in Africa. In an age where we are trying to curb corruption, particularly in the emerging economies, it is despicable that this trio should be internationally welcomed in the business world. Several more upstanding governments have stepped forward and done what they are able, Belgium prosecutors helping to freeze their ill gotten assets in offshore Jersey accounts, and the Swiss government freezing tainted assets in their country. However, here in our own country which actively promotes freedom and civil rights at all levels, the London Stock Exchange is seemingly turning a blind eye on these successful ‘business’ trio’s well deserved image of corruption.

Someone needs to stand up against them - the foundations of their achievements cannot be burnished.

Watch this space – possible actions in the pipeline on the 1st November….