Dina Tansari Misappropriated Donations: What Does She Think about Charges?

NeMolchi recently announced that it was under threat of closure due to the blocking of its accounts.

NeMolchi claims this is due to fraud accusations against the foundation's president, Dina Smailova (Tansari).

The Orda.kz editorial team sent an inquiry to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to clarify.

Today, we received a response.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs recalled that six criminal cases have been opened against Dina Tansari, two of which are for fraud.

The law enforcement agency cites several facts as evidence. The first:

During the investigation, facts of false publications and illegal collection of funds to the account of Smailova's de-facto spouse in violation of the requirements of the law were established, which were subsequently used for personal purposes. Thus, since 2021, Smailova, while outside of Kazakhstan, regularly announced a collection of money allegedly to help victims of violence. For example, from February 1 to 21, 2024 alone, she made 10 publications on the social network Instagram asking for financial support for the fund through donations, indicating the account of her de-facto spouse in Kazakhstan and a bank account in Georgia.

Meanwhile, Dina Tansari told an Orda.kz journalist that she considers the cases brought against her unlawful. 

She claims there was an extradition request addressed to Montenegro; the Balkan republic requested confirmation of the activist's guilt but did not receive it.

She says the following about her partner:

Firstly, Almat Mukhametzhanov is my legal husband, we have officially registered our marriage. Secondly, he is the Chair of the board of trustees of the NeMolchi foundation. The police have opened our documents and know about it, but they are misrepresenting this information.

Law enforcement has also mentioned the lack of audits:

According to the country's legislation, a public foundation is obliged to conduct annual audits, the results of which are to be covered in the media to ensure transparency of the public organization's activities. However, since the creation of the NeMolchi public foundation, its audit has not been carried out, and the data has not been published, the law enforcement agency said in its response.

The NeMolchi President, in turn, believes that the organization is not obligated to conduct an audit because it does not receive state support. 

We will conduct an audit as soon as the state allocates us some grant and we utilize it. But this will never happen!  says Tansari.

Tansari says NeMolchi fundamentally declines state assistance to remain an independent organization.

That is why it uses donations as funding.

Dina Tansar says donations fall under Article 516 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, "Donations." 

We constantly and systematically report to donors about donations. The state has nothing to do with them, says the NeMolchi President.

Dina Tansari also explained NeMolchi's charter.

We are a public foundation. Our charter states that we protect women and children from violence, provide lawyers, consult, provide psychologists, and conduct educational work. We do not go beyond the charter, she says.

As Tansari says, an audit costs about five million tenge, and the fund does not have such capabilities. 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs' response states that during the investigation, the investigation ordered an audit of the NeMolchi Foundation:

The audit established that more than seven thousand transactions worth 56 million 123 thousand tenge were made to the personal account of D. Smailova's de-facto spouse. Of this amount, auditors confirmed payment for the services of the victims' lawyers in the amount of 5 million 608 thousand tenge, the remaining amount was spent on needs not related to the activities of the fund.

Tansari believes that, firstly, the police have taken on an audit function that is not typical for them. 

Secondly, according to her, they use the collected funds to pay lawyers and support the fund's operations. 

For example, she cited the report for 2023, when the fund's expenses amounted to 65.9 million tenge.

Expenses also include assistance to victims, employee salaries, office rent, press conferences, Internet services, etc. 5.3 million tenge was also spent on treatment, moving to Montenegro, and renting housing. 

Original Author: Igor Ulitin