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Kazakh prosecutors have filed a lawsuit seeking to nullify the transfer of a local bank's ownership from ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev's non-profit foundation to a foreign company, they said on Thursday.

The foundation established by Nazarbayev, who ran the oil-rich Central Asian nation for three decades until resigning in 2019, used to own Jusan Bank (TSBN.KZ), the sixth-largest lender in the former Soviet republic.

But according to a statement by the prosecutor general's office, the company through which the foundation owned the bank transferred its shares to a foreign company in 2020, "endangering public interest".

Nazarbayev, 82, fell out with his successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev last year and lost key positions which had given him sweeping powers even after resignation, such as the chairmanship of the security council.

The Nazarbayev foundation, run by his daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva, acquired Jusan in 2019 after it was bailed out by the state.

According to prosecutors, the foundation asked them this month to look into the case, describing the ownership transfer as a result of illegal actions by several entities.

Neither the foundation, which runs a university and a network of prestigious schools, nor Nazarbayev's spokesman could be immediately reached for comment. (Reuters)