IT'S no laughing matter for Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh who will soon be more famous than Borat British taxpayers could benefit from legal action being taken against a wealthy Kazakh banker living in the UK over the alleged embezzlement of more than £1 billion. Mukhtar Ablyazov fled to London last year when his BTA Bank was taken over by Kazakhstan's government, which said it was acting to prevent the company's collapse during the global financial crisis. Royal Bank of Scotland - now 83 per cent-owned by the UK government - is among the creditors that had to write off a total of US$6.8 billion (£4.4bn) lent to the Kazakh bank. Now BTA is attempting to recover some of the money through civil proceedings at the High Court in London against Mr Ablyazov and his associates. If successful, RBS and BTA's other creditors will recoup part of their losses. Mr Ablyazov, a leading member of the opposition to Kazakhstan's president, denies the allegations, maintaining the claims are being of financial brought by the Kazakh regime for political reasons, in a plot worthy of fictional Khazak Borat.