The Department of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) for the Kostanay Region is conducting a pre-trial investigation into illegal microfinance activities that have been carried out since 2020.
According to the agency's press service, without the appropriate licence, the suspect issued loans secured by collateral and at interest through advertisements on the OLX and Instagram platforms.
It is reported that when concluding contracts, he deliberately inflated the loan amounts. The calculation included pre-accrued rewards, reaching up to 100% per annum. According to the investigation, the total amount of loans issued exceeded 100 million tenge.
“As a result of his illegal activities, the rights and interests of ordinary citizens who became victims of deliberately enslaving loan conditions were violated. In search of quick financial assistance, they found themselves trapped — with high interest rates and the risk of losing their property”, the statement says.
At the same time, to conceal the source of illegal income, the suspect involved an acquaintance who is an accountant and legalised the income through fictitious business activities. He registered a sole proprietorship in the car service sector and regularly issued fiscal receipts, although the enterprise did not conduct any actual business.
As the investigation established, more than 60.6 million tenge was legalised through fictitious reporting.
In the end, the court seized the suspect's apartment and funds in bank accounts totalling 28 million tenge. The investigation is ongoing.
For context, earlier in Almaty, the property of the organisers of the illegal microfinance organisations (MFOs) “Creditum”, “Sofi Finance”, “Hava Finance”, “SF Offline”, “POS Credit” and “Salem Credit” was seized in the amount of 32 billion tenge.