The inter-district criminal court of Shymkent has sentenced three residents — two from Shymkent and one from the South Kazakhstan region, now living in Aktau. They were found guilty of complicity in fraud on an especially large scale.
According to Ratel.kz, on 31 January 2025, the accused Kamalidin N. received an offer from an acquaintance to arrange the transfer of a large sum of money from Shymkent to Almaty. He enlisted two acquaintances from Shymkent — Dilshat Kh. and Akram M., who agreed to act as couriers. They were to collect 25 million tenge and $35,000 from a woman, then deliver the funds to Taraz.
The money belonged to the victim O. U., who the day before had been tricked into withdrawing all her savings and handing them over to “bank representatives”. The woman was acting under the influence of an unknown person claiming to be a National Bank employee, and believed she was helping to prevent a theft from her account.
After receiving the cash, the couriers kept 500,000 tenge for themselves, transferred 2.4 million to Kamalidin, and gave the remaining amount to unknown individuals in Taraz. The following day, the victim realised she had been deceived and contacted the police. Within a few days, all three suspects were arrested.
The defendants pleaded guilty and fully compensated the damages. The victim also stated that she forgave them. The court, considering the mitigating circumstances, sentenced each of them to 5 years of suspended imprisonment (Article 28, Part 5 – Article 190, Part 4, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Kamalidin told the investigation and the court everything he knew about that same acquaintance who had offered “easy money”. The investigation into this individual and any other possible accomplices has been separated into a separate case and is ongoing.
Additionally, each is required to pay procedural costs amounting to 841 tenge and a mandatory payment to the Fund for Victim Compensation of 78,640 tenge. The investigation into the unidentified organiser continues.