A court in Turkestan has sentenced 27 members of an organised criminal group (OCG) found guilty of embezzling more than 3 billion tenge of budget funds. Depending on their role, each has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 6 to 8 years.
WHAT THE INVESTIGATION ESTABLISHED
The Department of the Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) in the Turkestan Region established that between 2016 and 2021, the management of KT Yassy Nesie LLP orchestrated a scheme to embezzle funds from the Agrarian Credit Corporation JSC, which had been allocated under an agribusiness support programme for the purchase of cattle.
According to the case materials, fictitious peasant farms and individual entrepreneurs were registered in the names of front persons to obtain loans. The applications were accompanied by fake business plans, title documents, and information about non-existent collateral property.
HOW THE LOANS WERE PROCESSED
According to the AFM, loan officers prepared documents, generated fictitious credit reports, inspection certificates, and documents regarding the intended use of funds. According to the investigation, this created an appearance of legality when issuing the loans.
Also, according to the agency, appraisers and collateral specialists prepared inaccurate valuation reports and confirmed the existence of property that either did not actually exist or did not correspond to the declared value. According to the case materials, notaries certified fictitious documents for the collateral objects in exchange for a monetary reward.
WHAT WAS ESTABLISHED IN THE CASE
The investigation established 33 instances of criminal offences. The investigation also revealed the processing of 24 fictitious loans, with 54 non-existent objects presented as collateral.
By court order, 19 residential houses, 10 land plots, 2 apartments, 4 commercial premises and 4 cars were confiscated to the state revenue.
The AFM emphasised that the court's verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
