Fugitive Hid Billions in Wife’s Name: Antikor Seizes Assets

The man has been on the international wanted list since 2022. The funds and assets were registered in his wife’s name and did not match the family’s official income, Orda.kz reports.

Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Agency (Antikor) has confiscated property and funds worth over 2.3 billion tenge from a wanted suspect.

About 1.5 billion tenge of criminal origin were used to purchase luxury real estate, cars, and land plots in Almaty and the Almaty region. Some of the properties were registered in the name of the suspect's wife,Antikor reported. 

A financial probe also revealed more than $1.7 million (approximately 872 million tenge) and an additional 47 million tenge held in local bank accounts under the names of the suspect and his wife. Authorities confirmed that these funds were unrelated to the family’s declared income and were acquired through criminal means.

On June 16, a court ordered all property and funds transferred to the state.

Antikor emphasized that pre-trial asset confiscation applies to individuals who evade justice, including those on international wanted lists, persons amnestied, or those no longer subject to prosecution due to statute of limitations or death.

The agency also reported similar instances of public funds being laundered via individual entrepreneurs and used to purchase apartments and luxury vehicles. In one case, an official funneled more than 240 million tenge into a company under his control, while another withdrew 237 million tenge through relatives — money originally allocated for infrastructure projects.

The government continues to repurpose recovered assets for public benefit.

Earlier, the country’s first outpatient clinic, built with returned corruption funds, opened in the village of Arnasay, serving over 2,000 residents.

To date, 333 public and infrastructure facilities are under construction using resources from a special fund managed by the Ministry of Finance. Since 2022, Kazakhstan has reclaimed over 1 trillion tenge in assets.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov