The Prosecutor's Office of the Aktobe Region has sent a case to court regarding the embezzlement of 421 million tenge from shareholders of the housing construction cooperative (HCC) «Zhylshche».
According to the press service of the department, the chairman of the HCC is suspected of embezzling funds invested by shareholders in housing construction.
As reported by the prosecutor's office, on 2 April, a criminal case for fraud was sent to court. Seventy-five people have been formally recognised as victims, having invested more than 421 million tenge in the construction of two apartment buildings that were never built. As a result, the shareholders were left without housing and without their invested funds.
The prosecutor's office noted that across the Aktobe Region there are 11 problem sites involving shared-equity construction. A total of 745 people are listed among the victims. The total amount of damage in these cases exceeds 5.6 billion tenge.
Last year, the court found the heads of five construction companies guilty in relation to eight problem sites and sentenced them to 6 years' imprisonment.
"The regional prosecutor's office, in civil proceedings, has filed 2 lawsuits on behalf of 159 shareholders to invalidate sales contracts, recover 2 billion tenge from the developer for the victims, and transfer property. Another 6 lawsuits on behalf of 600 shareholders are at the preparation stage", said the regional prosecutor, Marat Abishev.
To prevent similar incidents, the department recommended that citizens demand the following documents from developers:
- guarantees from the authorised operator;
- confirmation of participation by a second-tier bank;
- information confirming the complete readiness of the site for construction.
It will be recalled that in January, it was reported that in Almaty, the directors of a limited liability partnership are suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion tenge of shareholders' funds. The four suspects had no right to construct residential complexes or raise funds from potential buyers. A total of 312 people have been recognised as victims in that case.