The Prosecutor's Office of Zhambyl Region conducted an inspection of the activities of LLP «Experimental Farm «Merkensky» and LLP «Zhemis-zhidek», during which it uncovered facts of embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale.
According to the press service of the department, from 2015 to 2022, the heads of the LLPs and five company employees forged documents for the sale of fruit crop seedlings, deliberately inflating the quantity of products sold.
As a result of the fraudulent actions, the defendants illegally received subsidies from the state budget totalling over 321 million tenge.
The court of Merken District found all suspects guilty. The heads of the LLPs were sentenced to imprisonment from 6 to 7 years with a ban on holding positions in the sphere of financial supervision and the public sector for 10 years.
The subordinate employees who provided assistance were sentenced to restriction of liberty for a term from 3 to 5 years. The verdict has not entered into legal force.
It is worth recalling that previously LLP «Zhemis-zhidek» and «Experimental Farm «Merkensky» were already involved in a high-profile legal dispute — but at that time in opposing roles.
In 2022, the company «Zhemis-zhidek», having changed its founders, expanded its sown areas and provided hundreds of jobs in Merken District of Zhambyl Region. However, soon «Experimental Farm «Merkensky» tried to challenge in court the legality of the transfer of these lands, claiming that the plot was in their possession.
Later, the former district prosecutor Yeldos Amirkhan intervened in the process, filing a similar lawsuit against the akimat and «Zhemis-zhidek». He referred to violations allegedly uncovered during a prosecutor's inspection.
Despite the protracted proceedings, the Appeals Panel of the Zhambyl Regional Court ruled that there were no grounds to overturn the akimat's decision to transfer the plot to «Zhemis-zhidek».
Thus, both companies, previously at odds over land, subsequently found themselves linked in a case of large-scale fraud with state subsidies.