Former head of the North Kazakhstan region branch of the “Agrarian Credit Corporation” (ACC) Almat Kozhakhmetov has been sentenced.
According to Ratel.kz, Almat Kozhakhmetov facilitated the provision of a loan to LLP “KT ‘Zhambyl Agro Invest’” to finance the peasant farm (PF) “Astaik” in the amount of 74,280,000 tenge. For this, he received a bribe of 100,000 tenge from the director of the PF, Dzhakupov.
Later, he helped LLP “EurasianTrade Kazakhstan” obtain a loan for 150 million tenge. After this, while in his office, Kozhakhmetov received a bribe of 500,000 tenge from the company’s director, Pankratov.
Last September, the Anti-Corruption Service detained Kozhakhmetov on suspicion of receiving a bribe. The former branch manager, for his part, did not plead guilty.
“The obtaining of the loan, its approval, and the disbursement of loan funds were carried out in accordance with internal regulatory documents”, said the defendant.
Incidentally, the bribe-givers were only treated as witnesses in the case. They were exempted from criminal liability.
“On 25 September 2023, at the building of the Anti-Corruption Service, I met Kozhakhmetov, who asked why I was there. I said I was summoned as a witness regarding the circumstances of handing over money to him. Kozhakhmetov asked me to say that he had returned the money. That ended the conversation. Later, an unknown young man came to the village and brought a package with 100,000 tenge, saying it was from Kozhakhmetov. I contacted a lawyer and, on his advice, handed the money over to the Anti-Corruption Service”, stated Dzhakupov.
For his part, the director of LLP “EurasianTrade Kazakhstan”, Pankratov, said that a month after receiving the loan, he left half a million tenge in Kozhakhmetov’s office as a thank you.
“The totality of evidence examined by the court indicates that the defendant Kozhakhmetov took active steps which resulted in the witnesses Dzhakupov and Pankratov being placed in a situation where they were forced to give a bribe to facilitate assistance and a positive decision on the issuance of loan credits. The defendant is trying to portray his actions as provocation and persecution by the Anti-Corruption Service”, the court ruling stated.
The judge pointed out that, by receiving money from the witnesses, the defendant acted in his personal interests, pursuing selfish motives. The court also considered the defence’s assertion that “accepting gratitude without any conditions does not constitute a criminal offence” to be unfounded.
“The court rejects the defence counsels' motions regarding the existence of provocation and persecution of the defendant by the criminal prosecution body, since Kozhakhmetov could have refused the bribe, but accepted the money”, the judge stated.
Ultimately, the court found Kozhakhmetov guilty and sentenced him to 7 years of imprisonment in a medium-security penal facility, with a lifelong ban on holding positions in the civil service.
Earlier, the head of one of the Peasant Farms (PF) applied for a loan to the branch of JSC “Agrarian Credit Corporation” (ACC). Subsequently, the borrower was approved for credit funds in the amount of 90 million tenge.
Afterwards, the deputy director of the Aktobe branch of the corporation misled the head of the PF about the need to enter into a contract with an LLP to procure and deliver livestock from Russia.
The PF transferred 90 million tenge to the LLP’s account. Later, however, it turned out that these funds were used by the branch’s deputy director for personal purposes. As a result, he was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment.