The Department of the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) in the Almaty region has exposed the "Amanat Drive" financial pyramid, the organisers of which offered citizens the opportunity to purchase property and cars in interest-free instalments.
According to the agency's press service, they only partially fulfilled their obligations — property was mainly provided to relatives and close acquaintances of the suspects. As a result, the pyramid attracted more than 8,000 investors, and the amount of invested funds exceeded 21 billion tenge.
To launder criminal proceeds, the organiser implemented a scheme using controlled legal entities — Amanat Drive LLP, "Allo, ne kerek", "i-m@rketing" and "Gold SapaPremium".
These companies acted as fictitious service providers for activities such as advertising, analytics and forecasting in the property and transport market. Based on sham contracts, the suspects withdrew and cashed out over 1.8 billion tenge.
With the criminal proceeds, they purchased private houses, apartments in Astana, as well as expensive cars, including a HUMMER H2 and a Lexus LX570. To conceal assets from potential confiscation, the property was registered in the names of trusted persons.
By court order, the said property, as well as the accounts of the consumer cooperative, were seized. The main organiser of the pyramid has been taken into custody. The investigation is ongoing.
For reference, the FMA Department for the Kyzylorda region previously suppressed the activities of the "HRT" financial pyramid, whose investors lost over 28 million tenge.