In Almaty, the former Almaly shopping centre, owned by Kairat Boranbayev, is to be turned into a children's science museum. The city's mayor, Yerbolat Dossayev, announced this at an extraordinary session of the city maslikhat.
According to ORDA, construction of the museum will begin in 2025. It is expected to become the first such institution in the CIS and will be realised in partnership with a foreign investor.
The project, costing 12.2 billion tenge, is planned in collaboration with Singapore's Science Museum Singapore, known for its science and education initiatives.
It has become known that the shopping centre, located in Almaty's 'golden square', was among Kairat Boranbayev's assets which he returned to the state in 2023. The premises were badly damaged during the January events, and plans to restore the shopping centre were never realised.
For context, in March last year, Boranbayev, his business partner Roman Nakhanov, and former deputy chairman of the board of QazaqGaz Taiyr Zhanuzak were sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment for embezzlement of funds on a particularly large scale in the quasi-state sector.
Later, the sentence was overturned as Boranbayev entered into a plea deal with investigators. At the same time, media reported that in June last year he had compensated for material damage amounting to 14.5 billion tenge.
Furthermore, it was reported that Kairat Boranbayev voluntarily returned assets worth over 90 billion tenge to state ownership and transferred 30 billion tenge to the Education Infrastructure Support Fund.
Soon after, Boranbayev admitted his guilt, agreeing to a deal with the prosecutor, after which his sentence was reduced to 6 years' imprisonment with confiscation of property.
As part of his voluntary cooperation with the investigation, he transferred to the state the Kazhanbas Severny oil and gas field, with an estimated value of 35.4 billion tenge, the company 'Service Centre KazTurboRemont' valued at over 9 billion tenge, AsiaGazChundzha LLP valued at 14 billion tenge, and much more.
Later, the court granted the businessman's request and commuted the remaining part of his sentence to restriction of freedom.
In November 2023, Boranbayev was released from the penal colony. In May of this year, Deputy Chairman of the AFM, Zhenis Yelemesov, told journalists that Mr Boranbayev has already returned 134.5 billion tenge to the state.