Bank Seeking Stolen Billions Looks to Hold ADM Unit Accountable

Kazakhstan’s third-largest bank has opened a new legal front in its wide-ranging effort to recover billions allegedly looted by an oligarch who fled the country.

BTA Bank is pursuing a foreign lawsuit accusing a group of major commodities traders—including affiliates of agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland Co.—of using sham transactions to help the bank’s former owner, Mukhtar Abylazov, funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen funds through legitimate businesses.

Bolstering that effort, the financial institution this month filed a court petition in Delaware seeking to resurrect a defunct ADM affiliate and hold it accountable for its alleged role ...