The specialised inter-district court of Astana has handed down another verdict against the founder of the community "Architects of the Future", Marat Abiyev.
According to the press service of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), alongside him in the dock were Anton Novitsky, Zhanibek Daribayev, Yevgeny Grebnev and Amanay Makhmetov. They were found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan:
- Art. 262, Part 1 (creation and leadership of an organised group, criminal organisation, as well as participation in them);
- Art. 197, Part 4, Clauses 1,2 (transportation, acquisition, sale, storage of oil and petroleum products, as well as processing of oil without documents confirming the legality of their origin);
- Art. 234, Part 3, Clause 2 (economic smuggling).
Between 2018 and 2022, the aforementioned individuals organised the production of diesel fuel banned from sale within the EAEU at an oil refinery in the Aktobe region, totalling 50,600 tonnes.
The fuel was subsequently sold under the guise of another petroleum product for 11.3 billion tenge, including 22,600 tonnes worth 6.7 billion tenge illegally smuggled abroad.
As a result, Abiyev was sentenced to 9 years in prison with a lifelong ban from holding public office and engaging in activities related to the creation and leadership of public associations for a period of 5 years. His accomplices were each given 8 years in prison.
Furthermore, the convicted individuals had property worth more than 180 million tenge confiscated, along with criminal proceeds from fuel smuggling totalling over 6 billion tenge.
It is noted that the criminal proceeds obtained from the illegal trade in petroleum products financed the activities of the illegal public association "Genesis" (or "Architects of the Future"), for the creation and leadership of which Marat Abiyev was sentenced to 7 years in prison in August 2023.
It is worth recalling that the public figure and journalist Kirill Pavlov previously explained on his YouTube channel how the "Architects of the Future" community and the TDFA fund, created to support agriculture, are linked to the family of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.