The son of former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov — Urmat Usenov — is in custody in Almaty on charges of illegal business activity and alleged creation of a transnational organised group. According to sources, the investigation is linked to the illegal trafficking of tobacco products.
WHICH ARTICLES ARE BEING INVESTIGATED UNDER
According to Kaktus.media, citing its own sources, on 10 March the specialised inter-district investigative court of Almaty authorised the detention of the suspects for a period of two months.
The suspects in the case are Urmat Usenov, two citizens of Kyrgyzstan — Y. Zh. and A. N. — as well as a citizen of Kazakhstan — B. A.
They are charged under part 3 of Article 28 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Types of accomplices to a criminal offence") and paragraph 1 of part 2 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Illegal entrepreneurship"), as well as part 1 of Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Creation of a transnational organised group or transnational criminal organisation, as well as leadership thereof or of its structural subdivision").
WHAT AMOUNTS ARE INVOLVED
According to information from sources, experts from the authorised state body in Almaty have determined the amount of damage to be 26 million tenge.
The value of the confiscated hookah tobacco, according to the investigation, is estimated at more than 46 million tenge. The total volume of seized products exceeds 1.6 tonnes.
WHEN THE PREVENTIVE MEASURE WAS CHOSEN
On 10 March, the specialised inter-district investigative court of Almaty authorised the detention of the suspects for a period of two months.
CONTEXT
On 18 May, it became known that six people had been detained in Kyrgyzstan on suspicion of organising a smuggling channel for foreign tobacco products through the country's territory. The main organisers of the scheme and implicated officials from the State Border Service were detained while attempting to export another batch of goods. The court remanded the suspects in custody until 15 July.
WHAT THE FBRK PREVIOUSLY FOUND OUT ABOUT TOBACCO SMUGGLING
The FBRK previously released a series of investigations into the illegal tobacco market in Kazakhstan. In two editions, the editorial team reported on the scale of the grey market, which is estimated to cover up to 20% of cigarette sales, as well as on the supply routes for smuggled products, including the Kyrgyz direction.
A separate edition was devoted to the case of Sergei Buri — a figure in the investigation into an alleged transnational tobacco smuggling scheme, extradited from Russia. Details are available on the FBRK YouTube channel: