A court in Aktobe has found the former head of the Aktobe Aircraft Repair Plant No. 406, Gennady Mezentsev, guilty in a case involving the theft of company property. He has been sentenced to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay damages of over 83.5 million tenge.
HOW THE CASE DEVELOPED
According to the newspaper «Diapazon», Gennady Mezentsev, who served as the plant's president for about 10 years, became the subject of a financial audit of the enterprise after his departure. The new management identified suspicious transactions and reported them to pre-trial investigation authorities, providing audit reports indicating the amount of damages.
Some time later, the criminal case, along with an indictment, was sent to court.
WHAT HE WAS CHARGED WITH
The court stated that the case involved the purchase of aviation equipment and its subsequent write-off in the documents.
"Mezentsev devised a criminal plan whereby units and component parts for MI-2 helicopters, AN-2 aircraft, GTD-350 and ASH62IR engines were bought and written off without their actual replacement or use in repair work," the indictment states.
According to case materials, these parts were recorded in the company's documentation as issued from the warehouse and installed during major overhauls of equipment. However, the court established that this did not actually happen.
A representative of the joint-stock company informed the court that, according to the audit results for 2018–2021, the total damage to the enterprise amounted to 110 million 918 thousand tenge.
THE DEFENDANT'S POSITION
Gennady Mezentsev did not plead guilty. In court, he stated that he did not have full autonomy in managing the enterprise and could not make decisions without approval from external structures.
He also noted that documents were signed by several officials, including the chief accountant and an engineer, and that he himself did not give any unlawful instructions or handle material assets.
WHAT THE COURT DECIDED
The court found Mezentsev guilty under paragraph 2 of part 4 of article 189 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Embezzlement or misappropriation, i.e., theft of another's property entrusted to the guilty party, on an especially large scale using official position").
He was sentenced to 7 years in prison. The court also ordered him to pay damages of over 83.5 million tenge. Two apartments and a land plot have been seized as part of the case.
The verdict had not entered into legal force at the time of publication.
CONTEXT
JSC "Aircraft Repair Plant No. 406 GA" has been operating since 1939 and holds certificates for major overhauls of An-2 aircraft, Mi-2 helicopters, as well as aircraft engines and components. The materials note that the enterprise is unique.
Furthermore, in summer 2024, Mezentsev was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. At that time, the damages were estimated at 5 million 194 thousand tenge.