In the specialised inter-district economic court of the Zhambyl region, a case was heard regarding a claim by the Committee for Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Development against a local LLP to revoke a licence and recover a licence fee.
According to the press service of the region's courts, in 2023 the company was issued a licence to carry out digital mining activities for a period of 3 years. However, the Partnership's management did not pay the fee of 2,000 MCI (7.8 million tenge) for the issuance of the licence.
Due to violations of licensing requirements, including the defendant's lack of mandatory system equipment, the licence was suspended in September last year.
"The violations were not rectified within the period established by law, which served as grounds for applying to the court," the statement said.
The defendant did not admit the claim, explaining that for mining it needed to purchase a large amount of electricity. In this regard, it allegedly approached JSC 'K.' to conclude an agreement for participation in the electricity trading market, but did not receive consent from them.
"According to Article 45 of the Law 'On Permits and Notifications', in the event that the licensee fails to submit a statement on the rectification of violations that served as grounds for suspending the permit, the permitting authorities shall, within 10 working days from the expiry of the suspension period, initiate the procedure for the deprivation (revocation) of the permit," the statement said.
The court established that an agreement for participation in the electricity trading market had indeed been concluded between the defendant and the JSC. However, the defendant was later removed from the list due to the suspended licence. It is noted that during this period, the LLP did not rectify the violations.
Ultimately, the committee's claim was granted, and the company was deprived of its licence for digital mining. At the same time, the licence fee in the amount of 2,000 MCI and a court fee in the amount of 237,000 tenge were recovered from the LLP for state revenue.
For context, in September, the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) investigated a criminal case regarding the illegal mining of digital assets in the territory of Astana without an appropriate licence.
The suspects organised the activity of a mining farm in Astana under the guise of an engine processing centre, consuming energy comparable to the monthly needs of one residential area. The value of the digital assets mined over two years exceeded 143 million tenge.