Earlier today, news reports indicated that everything seems to be going rather well for the world’s largest vertically-integrated steel producer:

“Mittal is doing well in Europe, especially in Ukraine and Kazakhstan,” said analyst Charles Bradford of Bradford Research. “They like to buy cheap assets, fix those a little bit, and that had worked.”

Recently, Kazakhstan was also the place of Mittal’s first large acquisition in the oil sector.

Now, Reuters reports that Kazakhstan accuses Mittal unit of tax evasion. The problem seems to relate to internal pricing:

The report said the company sold most of its exports through an affiliated company registered abroad and used fixed prices that did not fluctuate with the global market.

Although it is not yet known how much money Mittal Kazakhstan has channelled around the state coffers, one has to be cautious not to take sides too prematurely: While Kazakhstan and Mittal share a colourful mutual history - it’s not entirely clear whether the move is politically-motivated or caused by a clear-cut violation of Kazakhstan’s tax legislation.