The Anti-Corruption Agency has published the results of its fight against corruption among high-ranking officials over the past six months.
According to the agency's press office, those involved include former ministers, vice-ministers, committee chairpersons, and regional leaders.
It has become known that the Anti-Corruption Agency has completed the pre-trial investigation into the former Minister of Justice and other implicated individuals. He, along with heads of a private company, is suspected of embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale, fraud, and illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities.
The agency has also completed the investigation into a criminal case concerning the former Vice-Minister of Culture and Sport, as well as the management of a contractor organisation. They are suspected of abuse of official powers and embezzlement of budget funds. It is reported that in each of the specified cases, the damage amounted to more than one billion tenge.
Furthermore, the Anti-Corruption Service for the Karaganda region has completed a pre-trial investigation into the former First Vice-Minister for Emergency Situations on suspicion of exceeding official authority.
According to the investigation, he gave illegal instructions to the command of a military unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and to officials of the regional emergency situations department regarding the use of servicemen and special equipment for the construction of a private house. The Main Military Prosecutor's Office has sent the criminal case for consideration to the military court of the Akmola garrison.
The Anti-Corruption Agency also recalled that the inter-district criminal court of Astana convicted the Chairman of the Committee for Fisheries, N.T. Zhunusov, and his subordinate, the head of the Department for the Protection of Fish Resources and Regulation of Fisheries, E.K. Suykbaev.
They were accused of receiving bribes from entrepreneurs for general patronage. As a result, the officials were sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment and were stripped of the right to hold positions in public service.
In the North Kazakhstan region, anti-corruption fighters exposed the head of the regional Department of the Criminal Correctional System (DCCS). He is suspected of receiving a bribe of 1 million tenge from an entrepreneur. The bribe was intended for assistance in concluding a government procurement contract. By court order, the suspect was placed under house arrest.
Among other things, it became known that Court No. 2 of Ust-Kamenogorsk passed a verdict against the Deputy Head of the DCCS for the East Kazakhstan region, K.A. Ziyanov. He was found guilty of abuse of official powers. It is reported that he facilitated the creation of favourable and privileged conditions for serving a sentence for a convicted person – former head of the LLP 'ROP Operator', M. Kumargaliyev.
By the court's verdict, Ziyanov was sentenced to 1 year's imprisonment with a lifetime ban on holding positions in public service and was stripped of his rank of 'Lieutenant Colonel of Justice'.