UK prosecutors have re-frozen the sale of a former London mansion owned by Nurali Aliyev, worth $32.7 million. The property, once held by the grandson of Kazakhstan's ex-president, now belongs to Yu Tsung, a Chinese-born Cambodian citizen, reports infohub.kz.
The Crown Prosecution Service suspects the property may have been purchased with illegally obtained funds. The freeze was recorded in the land registry on July 3, 2026, but was not publicly disclosed. Transparency International UK obtained the documents and passed them to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Yu Tsung bought the mansion from Nurali Aliyev in July 2024. The new owner has not been charged in the UK. He did not respond to journalists' questions about the transaction and the source of funds, and prosecutors have not disclosed details of the investigation.
The same house was previously frozen in 2019. At that time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) demanded Aliyev explain the source of funds used to buy the property. However, a year later, a court overturned both the unexplained wealth order and the freeze. Aliyev said through a representative that the NCA had relied on false information and the investigation was baseless. He later sold the mansion to Yu Tsung. There is no evidence of any ongoing links between the former and current owners.
In August 2022, Yu Tsung also bought an apartment for $8 million in the Gasholders complex near London's King's Cross station. The 19th-century industrial structure was converted into luxury housing. This apartment was not frozen. In July 2024, it was transferred to Xu Peng. He did not explain to journalists his relationship with Yu Tsung.
OCCRP found that Yu Tsung and Xu Peng share a common acquaintance: Yuan Yihua, another Chinese-born Cambodian citizen. His UK assets were separately frozen in May. When transferring the apartment, Xu Peng listed as his correspondence address a house owned by Yuan Yihua. Two of Yu Tsung's UK companies are registered at another London apartment owned by Yuan Yihua, which was also frozen. Additionally, Yu Tsung and Yuan Yihua listed the same home address in Singapore. Both have also directed companies in Cambodia and hold stakes in various firms registered at a single Singapore office. Exactly how they are connected is unknown.
The freezes come amid a new campaign by UK prosecutors targeting assets possibly acquired with criminal proceeds. In June, the office announced that recovering and seizing such assets would become a key priority. Prosecutors plan to consider freezing assets early in investigations.
As previously reported, the property is a mansion at 32 Denwood Road in a private cul-de-sac in London's Highgate. In 2008, it was bought for £9.3 million by Parkview Estates, a company linked to Aliyev family corporate structures. In 2013, the property was transferred to the Panamanian foundation Villa Magna Foundation. The mansion featured in a case involving three Nazarbayev family properties worth over $100 million in total. The NCA suspected the funds might have come from the income of Rakhat Aliyev, the ex-husband of Dariga Nazarbayeva and father of Nurali Aliyev. The defense denied this. The court eventually lifted the unexplained wealth orders and the freeze. Additionally, UK authorities were ordered to reimburse Dariga Nazarbayeva and Nurali Aliyev about £1.5 million in legal costs. Now the same mansion has been re-frozen after its sale to a new owner.