In 2024, the Almaty prosecutor's office identified serious violations in the activities of ForteBank. According to a number of court rulings, in 2019 a local entrepreneur opened seven payment accounts in the names of individuals who were allegedly employees of his LLP. However, these people were not only unaware of the existence of their accounts at ForteBank, but had never been employed by the said company.
According to Ratel.kz, bank employees confirmed to the prosecutor's office that none of the seven supposed clients had ever personally visited a bank branch. In their words, bank workers simply received the documents from the LLP, opened the accounts and issued cards, and then sent them to the company. At the same time, they did not verify the existence of powers of attorney from the clients in favour of the company director, which is a direct violation of banking procedures.
The Department for the Protection of Financial Services Consumers of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market conducted a documentary inspection. Based on its results, law enforcement officers initiated an administrative case under Article 214 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – a violation of legislation on combating the legalisation (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism.
The investigation established that large sums of money were transferred abroad from the seven accounts over the course of four years.
"In the period from 01.01.2019 to 2023, funds were transferred as purchases to the bank account 'DAMAC HOMES LLC DUBAI AE, Mashreqbank (Dubai)'. In addition, a purchase was made at 'Yandex Taxi B.V. Amsterdam NL'", stated the first-instance court ruling.
It has become known that Mashreqbank is a financial institution operating in the UAE, and DAMAC HOMES LLC DUBAI AE is presumably one of the real estate developers in Dubai. It is noted that the transactions in favour of Yandex Taxi B.V. Amsterdam NL could have been used to purchase a stake or a license.
During the investigation, law enforcement agencies seized the documents of seven clients from the bank. It turned out that three of them allegedly signed applications to open an account and issue a card via SMS, but the confirmation codes that should have been sent to their mobile phones are missing from the banking system. The applications of another five clients were entirely absent from ForteBank's documentation.
"From Conclusion No. 1 on the results of the documentary inspection following a submission from the Almaty city prosecutor's office dated March 2024, it follows that the seven clients mentioned above transferred funds (made purchases) to foreign bank accounts between 2020 and 2023. Total transactions: 3,443, for a total amount of $13,363,061.13", stated the ruling of the specialised inter-district court for administrative offences in Astana.
Only after a request from the investigative authorities did the bank recognise 131 of the 3,443 transactions as suspicious. Thus, over three years, at least 5 billion tenge was transferred abroad through ForteBank. At the same time, the LLP's tax reports for the specified period show no income whatsoever.
For the administrative violation under Part 4 of Article 214 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – failure by subjects of financial monitoring to take measures for proper client (or their representative) and beneficial owner due diligence – the court fined ForteBank 775,320 tenge.
Additionally, the bank was charged under Part 10 of Article 214 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the non-compliance of its internal control rules with the requirements of legislation on combating the legalisation of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism.
"The bank's internal control rules lack a provision regulating the procedure and frequency for studying client transactions. In this regard, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) rules of ForteBank JSC do not comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan", the court concluded.
In connection with this, ForteBank was fined an additional 1,846,000 tenge. Furthermore, the Astana court issued a ruling under Part 2 of Article 214 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – for the failure to provide or untimely provision by subjects of financial monitoring of information on transactions with money and/or other property subject to financial monitoring. For this violation, ForteBank was to be fined 1,476,800 tenge.
Nothing is reported about the further fate of the businessman – whether the pre-trial investigation against him has been completed and whether he has been recognised as a suspect.