Cases Involving QazaqGaz Raise Questions, Orda Investigated

Together with its subsidiaries, QazaqGaz paid almost a billion tenge through the courts to structures associated with Dariga Nazarbayeva's husband.

 The Orda.kz investigation department has looked into the matter.

We made this discovery by chance when searching for publicly available information about QazaqGaz's activities to compensate for damage caused to the national company by its former director, Kairat Sharipbayev (the current husband of the first president's eldest daughter). 

Before the January Events, he had a tight grip on the country's gas industry. Even after his departure, the structure continued to pay hundreds of millions of tenge to companies affiliated with him.

We have found court decisions made in favor of companies associated with Sharipbayev.

Previously, these LLCs, which are part of the affiliated network, illegally won all tenders and competitions, and now they are collecting multimillion-dollar sums from QazaqGaz subsidiaries through the courts. According to our calculations, Sharipbayev thus returned 996,951,410 tenge.

Almost 700 Million 

According to the decision of the specialized inter-district economic court of Almaty dated January 24, 2023, more than 669 million tenge of debt and over 20 million tenge of state duty were collected from Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline LLP (a subsidiary of QazaqGaz) in favor of Aqtobe RGS LLP.

The basis is a contract for the retail sale of commercial gas.

 

The Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline, instead of purchasing gas from its sister company QazaqGazAimaq at the domestic price, overpaid by purchasing raw materials from an intermediary, the Aqtobe RGS company, which is associated with Sharipbayev.

In the case of Aqtobe RGS LLC, nothing has occurred, although we are talking about large sums.

Sharipbayev's Firms

In February 2023, the same Almaty court ruled to collect more than six million from Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline LLP in favor of SmartHighTech LLP. The court ruling states that the representatives of the national company simply did not show up for the court hearing, although they were notified of it.

 

They also did not provide valid reasons for their failure to appear and did not ask not to consider the case in their absence. The claim against the subsidiary of QazaqGaz was fully satisfied.

In March 2023, the same court, in a simplified (written) procedure, issued another decision in favor of another company associated with Sharipbayev, IT-Avennues LLC. This time, the defendant, Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline LLC, did not even deign to submit a response to the claim; it was satisfied in full. 

The company paid the plaintiff more than nine million tenge.

 

Information about the founders of IT-Avennues leads to LLP Inform Sistem, the owner of which was listed as Korlan Sharipbaeva, the daughter of Kairat Sharipbayev.

In April, lawyers for Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline lost another case to the same company, for more than 40 million tenge. Representatives of the QazaqGaz subsidiary reported in court that a criminal case had been initiated against officials affiliated with the LLP. 

The reason was suspicions of providing intermediary services and supplying goods at inflated prices.

 

After the initiation of the criminal case, the payment to the plaintiff was suspended. Given the existence of criminal proceedings against representatives of companies associated with the plaintiff and the possible damage to the interests of the defendant, we consider the claim for recovery of debt, state duty and legal costs to be unfounded until the completion of the criminal proceedings,
 The explanation of the defendant's representatives states.

The court collected in favor of IT-Avennues LLC a debt of 40,017,600 tenge and a state fee of 1,200,528 tenge. And the general public never found out what criminal case was being discussed.

In May, IT-Avennues LLP won in court against another subsidiary of QazaqGaz, Asian Gas Pipeline LLP. The national company was ordered to pay almost 150 million tenge.

 

During the same period, companies associated with Kairat Sharipbayev — LLP Soft Technology Utilities and LLP KazEnergoExport — recovered another 45 million tenge from LLP Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline through the court.

According to the court's decision, the gas company reimbursed the debt and the lawyers' expenses. At the same time, during the trial, the defendant's representatives insisted that all obligations to suppliers were fulfilled on time.

However, the court concluded that the defendant did not provide convincing evidence of payment or reduction of the debt. As a result, having slightly reduced the amount of the penalty, the court satisfied the claim.

 

IT-Avennues LLP managed to sue for money directly from QazaqGaz NC JSC. In February 2023, the specialized inter-district economic court of Astana ordered the national company to pay more than five million tenge in favor of the LLP.

At the trial, QazaqGaz lawyers did not acknowledge the claim, but at the same time explained that the company provided services, there were signed certificates of work performed, reconciliation acts on the presence of debt, and there were no claims under the contract.

 

Settlement Agreements 

QazaqGaz and its subsidiaries paid significant amounts to companies associated with Sharipbayev as part of concluded settlement agreements.

Based on the determination of the capital's specialized interdistrict economic court, a settlement agreement was approved between QazInfo Tech Systems LLP and QazaqGaz. As part of the agreement, the national company agreed to pay 72.9 million tenge under the contract for service maintenance and administration of the HIGH-LEIT NS SCADA system dated September 9, 2020.

 

According to another settlement agreement, the gas holding paid almost two million to SmartHighTech LLC.

 

All these court decisions give rise to many questions. Everyone remembers the scandalous statement of the current head of QazaqGaz, Sanzhar Zharkeshov, that financial violations worth almost a trillion tenge were found in the gas industry.

The company did not initiate a single high-profile criminal case.

Success?

There is a precedent for recovering damages caused by Dariga Nazarbayeva's husband.

Only the plaintiff in this case was not the gas company, but the Almaty Transport Prosecutor's Office. And listed as a co-defendant alongside the companies Inform System LLP and Angel Partnership LLP (both affiliated with Sharipbayev) is the well-known subsidiary of the national company — Beineu–Shymkent Gas Pipeline LLP. 

The prosecutor's office was able to prove in court that 133,280,000 tenge was withdrawn from the budget of the national company. The court declared the transactions with the LLPs mentioned above invalid.

 

It is unknown whether the involved employees of Beineu-Shymkent Gas Pipeline LLP were held liable, and whether the prosecutor's office managed to return the funds.

Achieving recognition of the transactions as invalid without the support of the national company speaks volumes nonetheless. With due initiative on the part of QazaqGaz, the result of the return of assets may have been much more tangible, and then there would have been no need to raise gas tariffs and conclude deals with foreign investors

Original Author: Editorial

Please refer to the original article in Russian for accuracy.