Stephen Payne, the lobbyist who was caught in the White House “cash for access” scandal, has indicated that he helped to obtain a United Nations travel document for one of his clients.

In a covertly recorded video Payne appeared to confirm that he had been instrumental in getting a UN certificate for Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan.

The document is not a passport but according to UN spokesman it confers “privileges which are akin to those of representatives of governments” on the bearer when travelling abroad.

In practice this means he or she is less likely to be impeded at airports by customs or other regulatory bodies.

Payne was exposed by The Sunday Times two weeks ago for offering access to the American government’s most senior figures in exchange for payment, including $250,000 (£125,000) for the private library being set up to mark the presidency of George W Bush.

A Kazakh politician has alleged that in 2005 Payne engaged in negotiations with Kulibayev, then vice-president of KazMunaiGas (KMG), the state-owned oil and gas company, to arrange for Dick Cheney, the vice-president of the United States, to visit Kazakhstan.

Eric Dos, a Kazakh politician who was then an adviser to Kulibayev and conducted the negotiations with Payne, said $2m was paid by KMG to Payne’s company. Cheney visited Kazakhstan about six months later.

In a meeting with Payne, which was covertly recorded by a Sunday Times reporter who was also present, Dos introduced the subject of Payne having helped Kulibayev obtain a UN “passport”. Payne appeared to confirm his involvement, saying “Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.” Asked if this was possible Payne answered: “It can be done. It's a question of money, always. Everything is.” A source close to Payne said: “He didn’t do this, but he knows who did. Kulibayev’s firm paid for him to sit on a UN advisory commission and a friend of his on it got the document for him.”

The “commission” referred to is the Energy Security Forum, a now defunct offshoot of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. Kulibayev was given a seat, courtesy of his position at KMG, from its inception in 2003, but never turned up to any of its meetings, said a spokesman.

The UN has confirmed that members were required to pay up to £1m over three years to keep their seats and that in May 2005 Kulibayev was issued with the travel certificate.

Dos said: “Kulibayev wanted his seat simply for the UN ‘passport’.”

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