Jomart Yertayev Released Under Amnesty

Businessman and former banker Jomart Yertayev has been freed under an amnesty, Orda.kz reports.

The Penal Enforcement System Committee (KUIS) confirmed this information.

The convict was serving his sentence in a penitentiary institution in accordance with the court verdict. He fell under the amnesty, which is why he was released,  the committee said.

Yer­tayev has been placed under probation supervision.

Background

Yertayev first faced criminal charges in 2009, when he was accused of embezzlement at Alliance Bank. Investigators claimed former top managers siphoned more than $1 billion. He spent nine months in pre-trial detention before being released on bail and later received a suspended sentence.

Although he stepped back from banking, he remained active in business. He headed Alma-TV from 2014 to 2016, became president of Alma Group in 2016, and later joined the boards of Russian banks, including Troika-D and Volgo-Oksky Commercial Bank.

In 2018, Yertayev was detained in Moscow at Kazakhstan’s request.

He was accused of stealing $80 million from Bank RBK through loans issued to shell companies. He claimed the charges were politically motivated. After a period under house arrest, he was briefly freed before being detained again.

In 2020, a Kazakh court convicted him of fraud and creating a criminal group, sentencing him to 11 years in prison, later reduced to nine. His lawyers repeatedly sought parole, but he remained in custody.

His co-defendant in the Bank RBK case, businessman Bakhyt Ibragim — a former Qazaq Banki shareholder — died by suicide in 2023 after facing new charges.

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