Status: Warning · Recommendation: Avoid · Issued May 2026. Based on a detailed, public Trustpilot review (dated April 2024) that a friend flagged to me; the reviewer is a friend of his. I hold an unused account at the local Freedom Finance Kazakhstan arm, and have personally used — and fully withdrawn from — Freedom Finance Uzbekistan, a separate entity.
Part of what this directory tracks is which brokers I’d actively warn you away from. Using Freedom24 to access Kazakhstan-listed shares is the first such case. The failure here is not a hack or an insolvency — it’s a withdrawal that gets buried under escalating, effectively impossible documentation demands until the client gives up and the money stays in Kazakhstan.
What happened
A foreign investor who opened a Freedom24 (Kazakhstan) account specifically to buy Kazakhstan-listed shares found that funding was effortless and withdrawal was not. His public Trustpilot review — explicitly headed “This review is for Freedom24 (Kazakhstan)” — documents the mechanism. The reviewer, who states he worked in banking for over 30 years, summarised it:
“TL;DR I am unable to get my money out of my brokerage account and accept the monies are lost/confiscated.”
The pattern he describes:
- Onboarding and funding were fast and easy — account opened quickly, questions answered promptly, account funded by credit card.
- The obstruction began at withdrawal. “Replies slowed to a crawl when I tried to withdraw funds and some emails ignored.” He was asked for proof of funds after he had already funded by credit card; he sent the actual credit-card statement showing the transaction, and it was rejected.
- Escalating, unconventional demands followed — Freedom24 said these came from “their correspondent bank.” Among the documents requested: a certificate of salary; donation/purchase-sale agreements; certificates of investment activity; cash-loan agreements; business-activity documents; inheritance documents. As the reviewer notes, several are impossible to satisfy for, e.g., a retiree living off personal savings.
- Then the demands turned absurd — among them: a detailed written description of why he bought the stock, why he sold it, what he intended to do with the money once received, and — in his words — “the best is for last: Show proof/receipts of my intention of using the cash once I receive it.”
- Outcome: after more than a month of chasing, with emails unanswered, he concluded the money was effectively lost. “Monies are trapped within Kazakhstan, and it is up to the individual to comply or face losing it.”
His closing advice: “Select large, internationally well-known, regulated, and recognised brokerages with an international presence. It is not worth the additional headache.”
How this surfaced
A friend flagged this review to me — the reviewer is a friend of his (so, a friend of a friend to me). The underlying experience dates to April 2024 (the review was last updated 29 April 2024); I surfaced it here in May 2026. This is a detailed, first-hand public account from a career banker — a reader-report-style evidence chain, not a failure I’ve tested personally, and I’d rather state that distinction plainly.
Which entity — and why the group structure matters
The review names the entity directly: Freedom24 (Kazakhstan), by Freedom Finance Europe. This removes the earlier ambiguity about which Freedom arm was involved. “Freedom Finance” is a brand shared across several separately-regulated arms of Freedom Holding Corp (Nasdaq: FRHC), the group controlled by Timur Turlov:
- Freedom Finance 24 / Freedom24 (freedom24.com) — the international/EU-facing retail platform, operated by Freedom Finance Europe Ltd, based in Limassol, Cyprus and CySEC-regulated (Cyprus Investment Firm licence 275/15, held since 2015 — confirmed against the CySEC public registry). This is the entity in the review — the arm many non-resident clients contract with to reach Kazakhstan-listed lines.
- Freedom Finance Kazakhstan / Freedom Broker (fbroker.kz) — the local Kazakhstan arm; where the custody and the trapped funds ultimately sit.
- Freedom Finance Uzbekistan (ffin.uz) — a separate Uzbekistan entity (see its own page).
The structural point is what makes this dangerous: a non-resident contracts with a CySEC-regulated Cyprus entity (which reads as reassuring), but the assets and the withdrawal bottleneck sit inside Kazakhstan, behind a correspondent-bank AML process the client cannot influence. The reassuring regulatory wrapper and the place your money is actually stuck are two different jurisdictions.
My own status
- Freedom Finance Kazakhstan (fbroker.kz): I hold an account but have never used it — no funds deposited, no withdrawal attempted. The warning rests on the public review, not on my own experience.
- Freedom Finance Uzbekistan (ffin.uz): a separate operational entity. I personally opened an account there, traded through it, and have since made a full withdrawal of funds with no problems — the exact operation the reviewer could not complete in Kazakhstan. It carries a Verified / viable-with-caveat status in this directory, not this warning.
Why the entities should not be conflated — but why caution still carries over
Most readers see one brand, “Freedom Finance,” and assume one company. Operationally they are not the same: the Kazakhstan-access route (Freedom24 / fbroker.kz) and the Uzbekistan arm run under different jurisdictions and have produced opposite outcomes in practice — a trapped withdrawal in one, a clean full withdrawal in the other. So it’s worth keeping them clearly separate.
Still: a documented withdrawal failure at one arm of a group is a reason for elevated caution toward the brand generally. My clean withdrawal from Uzbekistan is reassuring for that entity to date, but is no guarantee similar AML-driven obstruction won’t appear elsewhere in the group. Size positions accordingly and keep withdrawal-testing discipline — withdraw a small amount early, before committing capital you’d mind losing.
Recommendation
Avoid Freedom24 / the Freedom Finance group for Kazakhstan exposure. The documented failure mode is specific and repeatable-sounding: easy in, then a withdrawal smothered by escalating, impossible-to-satisfy documentation while the money sits in Kazakhstan. If you want Kazakhstan exposure, see the alternatives on the Kazakhstan country page — BCC Invest, Teniz Capital, SkyBridge Invest, and the Halyk entities — or take the cleanest route of all: Halyk and Kaspi are listed in London/New York, reachable through any normal international broker with no Kazakhstan onboarding at all.
Sources and dates
- Public Trustpilot review — “Freedom24 (Kazakhstan),” by reviewer HWC (Hong Kong), updated 29 April 2024: https://www.trustpilot.com/users/662a188d8727010012b9d518
- My own status (account held, never used at fbroker.kz; full withdrawal completed with no problems at Freedom Finance Uzbekistan): self-reported, 2026.
- Freedom Finance Europe Ltd (Freedom24) corporate identity — Limassol, Cyprus; CySEC CIF licence 275/15: https://www.cysec.gov.cy/en-GB/entities/investment-firms/cypriot/73116/
- Warning compiled 22 May 2026.