The manufacturer of domestic computers, Beibit Temirgali, has been acquitted in a criminal case of embezzlement. Back in September last year, the entrepreneur recorded a video message to the president of the country asking for help.
According to journalist Mikhail Kozachkov, it all began when, during the pandemic, the businessman's company assembled more than 25,000 units of equipment for state authorities.
However, after 2.5 years, the entrepreneur was accused of supplying equipment that did not meet the technical specifications to Zhambyl Region. They attempted to hold him criminally liable for 100 laptops.
Beibit Temirgali lost a civil lawsuit and was ordered to return around 25 million tenge to the akimat, and as part of the investigation, he was recognised as a suspect in a criminal case of embezzlement.
In court, Temirgali claimed he had manufactured the computers in Kazakhstan, but during the investigation he admitted he had bought them from a Chinese company. In addition, it emerged that the difference between the contract amount and the cost of the computers was 17 million tenge.
However, the board of the Supreme Court, having studied the results of the expert examinations, overturned the decisions of the lower courts and refused to satisfy the state authority's demands.
At the time, experts discovered that someone had replaced the expensive computer components with cheap ones. The seals were missing, and the bolts had been stripped or were missing entirely.
Despite this, these arguments proved insufficient for the Taraz City Court, and at the beginning of March this year, a criminal trial began in which Beibit Temirgali was accused of embezzling funds allocated for the purchase of those very computers. Law enforcement believed the supplier himself had replaced the expensive parts with cheap ones.
However, the day before yesterday, after a long legal process, the businessman was fully acquitted in the criminal case at the Taraz City Court.