VIENNA—Austria said on Thursday it was investigating Kazakhstan's former envoy to Vienna, Rakhat Aliyev, on suspicion of money-laundering.
On Wednesday, Aliyev's wife, Dariga Nazarbayeva—daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev—confirmed she had filed for divorce from her husband, a powerful businessman who has fallen out with her father.
The Vienna state prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into Aliyev on suspicion of money-laundering and has blocked his bank accounts in Austria, spokesman Otto Schneider said.
Aliyev, wanted at home on kidnapping charges, is in Vienna awaiting an extradition hearing after being freed from jail on one-million-euro bail. He has denied all wrongdoing and said he had been divorced by Dariga without his consent.
He told weekly Vienna magazine Format in a report released ahead of publication on Friday that the funds in question "come from legal sources that were even vetted by the banks".
Aliyev says the Kazakh criminal case against him is politically motivated because he intended to run for president. He has accused Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, of usurping power in the oil-producing Central Asian state.
In May, Nazarbayev ordered police to investigate Aliyev on suspicion of kidnapping senior officials at Nurbank, a mid-size Kazakh bank Aliyev controls, and sacked him from his position as ambassador to Austria.
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