In Almaty, assets belonging to the organisers of the illegal microfinance organisations (MFOs) 'Creditum', 'Sofi Finance', 'Hava Finance', 'SF Offline', 'POS Credit' and 'Salem Credit' have been seized to the sum of 32 billion tenge.
According to the press service of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), more than 327,000 citizens were affected by the illegal activities of these MFOs, suffering damage totalling 30 billion tenge.
As previously reported, borrowers who had overdue payments were forced to sign guarantee agreements with affiliated companies — 'Hava Finance', 'SF Offline' and 'POS Credit'. The guarantor's liability was triggered solely in the event of the borrower's death.
"A fee was charged for this 'service', many times greater than the original loan amount, which trapped citizens in a debt spiral. In the end, borrowers paid three to five times more than the loan amount," the statement said.
Seizures have been placed on the MFOs' accounts totalling 1.8 billion tenge, as well as on loan portfolios amounting to 30 billion tenge.
One of the organisers has been remanded in custody for a period of two months. Seizures have also been placed on his two residential houses and vehicles — a BMW X6 and a Toyota Tundra — with a total value of 225 million tenge.