District Court No.2 of the Medeu District of Almaty has sentenced former heads of the department of economics and finance.
According to the press service of the Almaty courts, the defendants embezzled budget funds intended to support the Olympic reserve and children with speech disorders between 2019 and 2022.
"The schemes involved using accounting software to arrange salary payments to people who were not actually on the payroll of these organisations. The fraudulently accrued funds were transferred to bank cards controlled by the defendants. In addition, manipulations were carried out using front persons to award unjustified bonuses.", the statement said.
The total damage resulting from their actions exceeded 150 million tenge. All defendants denied guilt. According to them, they were acting within the scope of their official duties, and the additional payments were allegedly the result of a mistake in the accounting software.
However, prosecutors presented as evidence accounting records, payment documents and bank statements confirming the illegal actions.
In the end, the court found the defendants guilty and sentenced them to 6, 7 and 8 years in prison respectively. In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of the convicts' property.
It is worth recalling that in 2024, the Anti-Corruption Agency identified around 60 violations in the field of sport. The damage to the state amounted to 1.3 billion tenge.
The agency reported the completion of the pre-trial investigation against the former head of the state enterprise "Directorate for Sports Development", his deputy and other implicated individuals. They are suspected of embezzling 746 million tenge of budget funds under the "Artsport" programme.
At the same time, the Anti-Corruption Agency completed another investigation into the head of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Atyrau region. He is suspected of receiving a bribe of 1.7 million tenge from a coach of the subordinate Olympic Reserve Training Centre for allocating funds for athletes' travel to training camps.
In October, the prosecutor's office of the Aktobe region revealed that heads of children's and youth sports schools were appropriating funds received from sports teams for renting sports facilities. It was reported that they spent more than 6 million tenge on their own needs, including on bets at bookmakers.
At the beginning of November, it became known that a short-track speed skating coach for children's and youth teams at the State Institution "School of Higher Sports Excellence" of the Kostanay region is suspected of embezzling 6 million tenge of budget funds.