The head of institution No. 31 of the Criminal Executive System Committee (CESC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the village of Dolinka, Karaganda Region, Yerbolat Abikeyev and his wife Maral Satayeva sold a car with a tampered VIN code to a local resident.
According to Ratel.kz, in September 2022, Yerbolat Abikeyev bought a Toyota RAV4 from a certain Didar Құrmanğali for 7.6 million tenge. Two months later, Abikeyev sold it to his wife, Maral Satayeva.
“On 6 November 2022, Satayeva M.T. purchased from Abikeyev Y.K. a Toyota RAV4 vehicle, registration plate 712AEV09, 2011 model year, VIN JTMBE33V30D071804, under a simple written contract executed via the KASPI.KZ application. On 7 November 2022, Satayeva M.T. was issued vehicle registration certificate series MJ No. 00132459 and registration number 162AFQ09”, the court decision states.
On 15 November, the car was sold to Berik Akmoldin for 8.6 million tenge, meaning the couple made a profit of one million tenge from the resale.
However, on 4 January 2023, it emerged that the car had a forged VIN code, after which police opened a criminal case and seized the vehicle from Akmoldin as physical evidence.
On 9 November 2023, District Court No. 2 of the Kazybekbi District of Karaganda declared the sales contract between Satayeva and Akmoldin invalid. The court ordered Satayeva to return 8.6 million tenge to the buyer and also cover court costs.
In March 2024, the court heard another case concerning the same vehicle. The plaintiff was Maral Satayeva, and the defendant was her husband, Yerbolat Abikeyev. Satayeva claimed that when she bought the car from Abikeyev, she was unaware that the VIN code had been tampered with. In court, Abikeyev explained that he too had no idea the car had documentation issues.
“Satayeva M.T. based her claims on the fact that on 15 November 2022, the car was sold by her to Akmoldin B.S. By the court decision of 9 November 2023, the contract concluded between her and Akmoldin B.S. was declared invalid. It was established that the VIN code on the car had been tampered with. However, she was not aware of this circumstance when purchasing the car from Abikeyev Y.K. She seeks to have the vehicle sales contract concluded on 6 November 2022 between her and Abikeyev Y.K. declared invalid.” the court decision states.
At the hearing, Zhasulan Zhakupov, Merey Zhubanov and Didar Құrmanğali acted as third parties. Zhakupov admitted that he acted as an intermediary in forging the car's VIN code, while Zhubanov, who originally owned the car, gave Zhakupov money to arrange the documents.
It subsequently transpired that the data had been falsified not only for the VIN code but also for the vehicle's model year and specifications. Zhubanov's representative insisted that Satayeva was deliberately trying to pass her costs onto Zhubanov.
Ultimately, on 15 March 2024, the court declared the contract between Satayeva and Abikeyev invalid. At the same time, the court concluded that Satayeva did not know and could not have known about the VIN code falsification when purchasing the car from her husband.
“The circumstances established by the court decision that has entered into legal force, as well as the materials of the electronic criminal case examined in the court session, allow the court to conclude that at the time of concluding the disputed contract with Abikeyev Y.K., the plaintiff was not aware, and could not have been aware, of the fact that the vehicle's VIN code number had been falsified. No other circumstances in the case have been established. The fact of the falsification of the vehicle's VIN code number could not have been known to the plaintiff even when registering the vehicle.” the court decision states.
Incidentally, the court saga did not end with all these proceedings. On 28 November, it became known that the inter-district civil court of Astana had accepted a claim from Abikeyev against Құrmanğali seeking to have the contract declared invalid and to recover a sum of money.