The court in Ust-Kamenogorsk has sentenced the chairman of the board of directors of 'Asia-Bipek AVTO' Anatoly Balushkin and the general director of JSC 'Asia AVTO' Yerik Sagymbaev.
According to Informburo.kz, the verdict was delivered in absentia, as the defendants were not present in the courtroom. Both are citizens of Russia.
Anatoly Balushkin was found guilty under Article 190, Part 4, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ('Fraud committed on an especially large scale') and was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment, with a ban on holding senior positions in commercial organisations for 10 years.
Yerik Sagymbaev was found guilty under Article 190, Part 4, Paragraph 2 ('Fraud committed on an especially large scale') and Article 245, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ('Tax evasion committed by a criminal group or on an especially large scale'). He was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months of imprisonment, with a ban on holding senior positions in commercial organisations for 10 years.
The former executives are required to serve their sentences in medium-security correctional facilities.
The court refused to satisfy the civil claim of the victim's representative (the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan) for compensation for material damage.
Recall that in May 2023, the Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) began a pre-trial investigation into the chairman of the board of directors of 'Asia-Bipek AVTO', Anatoly Balushkin, the general director of JSC 'Asia AVTO', Yerik Sagymbaev, and a number of top managers of the group of companies. At that time, they were accused of embezzling more than 230 billion tenge.
In August 2024, a trial in absentia began in Ust-Kamenogorsk regarding Anatoly Balushkin. It was reported that in 2020, the authorities terminated the contract with the company and demanded the return of allocated government funds amounting to 174 billion tenge. According to the investigation, the company's representatives failed to fulfil their obligations for the industrial assembly of cars. The company had received tax benefits totalling this amount over 10 years.
In March of this year, a verdict was delivered in Ust-Kamenogorsk for the top managers of the company 'Asia AVTO'. Eight people were in the dock. They were accused of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Jusan Bank and the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development were recognised as victims in the case, but the prosecution could not prove the damage caused to the state.
Ultimately, the court acquitted two of the top managers and sentenced the others to between 2 years and 8 months and 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment. However, the court took into account the time spent in custody and under house arrest and considered the sentence to have been served.