Its legal title records that the house and some of its grounds were sold for £15 million in 2007, £3 million over the asking price, to an offshore trust in the British Virgin Islands. Kenes Rakishev, a 29-year-old Kazakh businessman who called himself a 'friend' of Prince Andrew, professed to have negotiating the deal with the help of his father-in-law Imangali Tasmagambetov, the mayor of Astana, but insisted neither of them was the owner. Later, the owner was revealed to be Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kulibayev acknowledged ownership after a newspaper investigation revealed he had used offshore companies and a trust to make the purchase.