Ex-Bank Chair Olzhas Tokhtarov Sentenced in Absentia

On April 22, the Astana Interdistrict Criminal Court issued a guilty verdict against Olzhas Tokhtarov, the former chair of the board of directors and majority shareholder of Astana Bank, Orda.kz reports.

He was convicted of embezzling funds under the guise of agency services and illegally transferring a business center in Almaty to a controlled entity during the bank’s pre-bankruptcy period.

The verdict was announced at a briefing in Astana by the official representative of the Anti-Corruption Service, Daniyar Bigaidarov.

Tokhtarov was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison with confiscation of assets totaling more than 14 billion tenge. The list of confiscated property includes residential, administrative, and industrial real estate, land plots, securities, and cryptocurrencies.

Several former bank employees were also found guilty. Due to their cooperation with the investigation and the court, they received non-custodial sentences.

His subordinates from among the former heads of the branch, department and management of JSC Bank of Astana were also found guilty. Taking into account their cooperation with the Criminal Prosecution Authority and the court, admission of guilt and assistance in solving illegal acts, the court sentenced them to a punishment not related to imprisonment,
said Bigaidarov. 

The Anti-Corruption Service clarified that many of the assets subject to confiscation were identified during the financial investigation. Some had been registered to affiliated individuals but were ultimately determined to belong to the defendants.

Since 2022, Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Service has returned over 1.13 trillion tenge in assets and funds to the state. Of this amount, more than $670 million (approximately 300 billion tenge) was repatriated from abroad, including from Austria, Liechtenstein, the UAE, and Türkiye.

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov