The Department of the Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) of Shymkent has halted the activities of a group of individuals suspected of organising an illegal online gambling business.
According to the agency's press service, over the course of two years the suspects conducted an illegal game of chance called 'Trinka' via live streams on TikTok and YouTube platforms through the 'TauBrat' page.
To launder criminal proceeds, a scheme was used involving so-called 'drops' — bank cards were issued in the names of front individuals, through which the money was cashed out.
The total income from the illegal activity exceeded 93 million tenge. The suspects used the proceeds to purchase a Hyundai Sonata car, as well as a residential house with a plot of land.
By court order, the property has been seized. Two suspects have been remanded in custody for a period of two months.
Previously, AFM officers uncovered a large-scale cross-border transfer scheme, through which funds were channelled via payment organisations, disguised as legitimate transactions, and funnelled to online casinos. The volume of illegal transfers exceeded 600 billion tenge.
The AFM also shut down a call centre providing technical support for four online casinos and offering advice on financial transactions.
Its operations involved 120 people — citizens of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Spain and Vietnam. Furthermore, the organisers of the call centre set up a gambling affiliate programme for receiving and withdrawing funds in cryptocurrency. The turnover of this programme exceeded 200 million USDT (100.8 billion tenge).