The Anti-Corruption Service has secured the confiscation of assets worth more than 2.3 billion tenge from a suspect accused of laundering criminal proceeds. The individual has been on the international wanted list since 2022.
According to the agency's press office, Anti-Corruption officers obtained evidence of the criminal origin of funds and property assets acquired through illegal income.
It has emerged that the suspect used approximately 1.5 billion tenge of unlawfully obtained funds to purchase high-value property. This includes a luxury car, an apartment, land plots, residential houses, and buildings in Almaty and the Almaty region. Some properties were registered in the name of the suspect's wife.
During the investigation, law enforcement also identified large sums held in the bank accounts of the suspect and his wife: $1.7 million (872 million tenge) and 47 million tenge in second-tier banks of Kazakhstan.
It is noted that these funds were obtained during the period of the offences and do not correspond to the family's official income. By court order, the money and property assets were confiscated in favour of the state.
As the agency notes, since the beginning of the year, Anti-Corruption has been investigating around 30 criminal cases related to the legalisation (laundering) of money and property obtained through criminal means. Some cases have been sent to court, and guilty verdicts have already been delivered.
"Special attention is paid to cases where illegal income is disguised as legitimate transactions in the name of relatives or affiliated companies, used to purchase high-value property, cryptocurrencies, securities, including through investment instruments," the statement said.
For example, a former official suspected of embezzling more than 745 million tenge allocated from the budget for sports development purchased two premium cars and transferred over 240 million tenge to the account of a controlled company for profit.
In another case, suspects, through relatives who are individual entrepreneurs, cashed out more than 237 million tenge allocated for infrastructure and urban development projects. The funds were used to purchase apartments, cars, and other property. The assets were seized by court order.