The Department of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) for the Mangystau Region has completed an investigation into the directors of LLP «Ozen Machine-Building Plant», who are suspected of illegally raising funds from citizens under the guise of shared-equity construction.
According to the press service of the agency, over the course of two years, the company built the Astana Rich Village residential complex in Zhanaozen without permits, design and estimate documentation, state expert examination, or architectural supervision.
To attract citizens' money, the management placed online advertisements offering flats at below-market prices. As a result, fictitious preliminary purchase and sale agreements were concluded with 23 citizens. The total amount of illegally raised funds exceeded 303 million tenge.
The money received was cashed out from the company's cash register under the guise of purchasing construction materials, but in fact the suspects spent it on personal needs. The construction of the facility was never completed.
To compensate for the damage, by court order, the suspects' property (a residential house, a flat, two cars, and three land plots) was seized. One of the suspects has been taken into custody, and the other is on bail.
It should be recalled that earlier the Prosecutor's Office of the Aktobe Region protected the rights of shared-equity investors affected by illegal actions of developers. The region has 12 problematic shared-equity construction projects, where 797 people have been recognised as victims, and the total damage exceeded 6.1 billion tenge.