Financial Monitoring Agency Explains Conditions for Scrutinizing Officials' Foreign Assets

Deputy Chair of the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) Zhenis Yelemesov clarified what circumstances Kazakh officials’ foreign real estate can be investigated, Orda.kz reports.

Speaking on the sidelines of a roundtable in Astana, Yelemesov was asked how the agency responds to reports of high-value property abroad owned by public servants. He emphasized that the FMA cannot independently initiate checks without legal grounds or external input.

We are not an authorized body to conduct any inspections; there are special authorized bodies for this. They conduct an inspection, write the relevant conclusions or reports and provide them to us. If such reports or reports (that the assets were acquired illegally — Ed.) are received by us, then we will definitely give a legal assessment and make a procedural decision,
explained Yelemesov. 

He added that investigations can only proceed if formal complaints or findings are submitted by competent bodies.

There is another option: there are subjects of financial monitoring, they see all the transactions that take place, all the banking operations that take place, every day. And if such transactions exceed the threshold or have signs of suspicious operations, then information about them is provided to our agency, we then conduct an in-depth analysis, and if the results of this analysis show that there are signs of a criminal offense, we transfer the data to law enforcement agencies and give a legal assessment,
added the deputy Chair. 

Orda.kz, citing Azattyq's investigation, has previously reported on the luxury properties allegedly owned by officials in Dubai.

Original Author: Anastasia Prilepskaya