Police have detained a businessman and two bloggers after a victim came forward.
According to Polisia.kz, they are suspected of blackmail and threats to publish compromising material on social media.
It is reported that the offenders extorted 8 million tenge. In addition, they attempted to pressure the victim into dropping claims for 20 million tenge that he was due to receive from the businessman by court order.
The suspects were detained while receiving 10 million tenge. They have been placed in a temporary detention facility. Police have opened a criminal case regarding the extortion.
It is worth recalling that in December 2023, law enforcement officers detained a resident of Semey with multiple previous convictions for fraud. It was reported that over several years, posing as a blogger and threatening to spread damaging video material, he extorted money from workers on passenger trains travelling through Semey.
In June 2024, police detained two bloggers from the Turkestan region on suspicion of extortion. They demanded 100,000 tenge from the director of a district school in exchange for removing a post that was damaging his professional reputation.