Tengrinews.kz - A court in the Ulytau region has found a local resident guilty of illegal subsoil use and laundering criminal proceeds, according to a statement from the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA).
The investigation, carried out by the regional department of the FMA, revealed that between 2020 and 2023, the man had been illegally extracting manganese ore from the “Vostochny Karazhal” quarry without a license or subsoil use contract.
"As a result, over 16,000 tonnes of ore were extracted, causing state losses exceeding 1.1 billion tenge. To launder the proceeds, he forged documents and used affiliated companies to sell processed iron-manganese ore both domestically and to the Russian Federation. The total illicit revenue amounted to more than 3.5 billion tenge," the FMA reported.
The court sentenced the defendant to six years and eight months in prison.
In addition, his assets — including five vehicles and a farm — worth 97.8 million tenge, were confiscated by court order.
The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
Previously, the Financial Monitoring Agency of Kazakhstan reported a rise in cases of counterfeit foreign currency distribution.