In the specialised inter-district criminal court of Almaty, cases are being heard concerning alleged land fraud in the city. The defendants include former high-ranking officials and businessmen.
According to Ratel.kz, among the accused are the former head of the urban planning and urbanism department, Almaskhan Akhmedzhanov, the ex-head of Almaty's land relations department, Ardak Samambetov, the head of a section within the land relations department, Yerlan Zharmukhanbetov, and three businessmen involved in the registration of disputed land plots.
At the hearing on 8 January, the court examined two episodes of alleged illegal removal of land plots from the state fund. The first episode concerns a plot on Prokofyeva Street in the Almalinsky district.
According to the prosecution's version, the owner of TLL "T Super Service", Berik Uskembayev, obtained a land plot of 0.14 hectares under the pretext of implementing an investment project. The investigation claims that the project to build a "public service facility" (a CSN centre) was fictitious.
Despite lacking the authority to approve and coordinate investment projects, Almaskhan Akhmedzhanov signed the document and affixed his seal.
In turn, Ardak Samambetov instructed that these materials be submitted for discussion to the land commission and that a draft positive conclusion be prepared.
"Thus, Uskembayev first obtained the plot on a lease, erected some sort of structure on it, and drew up a fictitious acceptance certificate for the commissioning of the supposedly completed public service facility. The certificate was registered with the NAC 'Government for Citizens', and then Uskembayev submitted documents to the akimat requesting the land plot be granted as private property, arguing that the investment project had supposedly been implemented.", the report states.
It has become known that the plot was purchased at its cadastral value for 13.2 million tenge, while its market value was 118 million tenge. The damage to the state amounted to 105 million tenge. It is noted that Uskembayev subsequently re-registered the land plot in the name of his relatives and sold it.
The second episode concerns a plot in the Mamyr-4 microdistrict of the Auezov district. According to case materials, the owner of TLL "TMT Invest", Tair Tlepov, obtained a land plot for the construction of a four-storey health centre with public service facilities and an underground car park, with a total area of 2,960 m².
As in the previous case, the investment project was approved by Akhmedzhanov, and Samambetov instructed that the materials be submitted for discussion to the land commission.
"In March 2022, Tlepov drew up a fictitious acceptance certificate for the commissioning of the supposedly completed health centre, registered it with the NAC 'Government for Citizens', and through the city akimat obtained ownership of the land. Thus, Tlepov became the full owner of a plot with a market value of 82 million tenge for 7.5 million tenge. The damage to the state amounted to 74.5 million tenge.", the report states.
According to the testimony of witness Sarsenkulov, who later purchased this plot for $250,000 (at the 2022 exchange rate - 115 million tenge), "on the land there was only the fencing from a car park, there were no buildings at all – bare land."
The prosecution asserts that in both cases, the land plots were removed from the state fund in violation of the requirements of the law on investment projects. None of the defendants pleaded guilty.