Kairat Perizat: Witnesses Describe Fundraising at NIS and Large Cash Transfers in June 17 Hearing

18 July 2025 10:51 Orda English

Orda.kz reports that new testimony has emerged in the trial of Perizat Kairat, founder of Biz Birgemiz Qazaqstan 2030, who faces charges of fraud and money laundering involving billions of tenge.

Charity Fair

Teacher Zhanerke Satkynbekova, from a Nazarbayev Intellectual School, explained that parents organized a charity fair — selling baked goods and handmade souvenirs — to raise funds for flood relief.

They raised 2,919,396 tenge, which she donated via the Kaspi app link to Biz Birgemiz Qazaqstan 2030.

When Kairat questioned her on why she filed a lawsuit requesting the return of that money, the exchange went:

Perizat Kairat: “It turns out that the FMA employees told you to write a statement?”
Zhanerke Satkynbekova: “No, they asked me if I would write it. I said yes, I would.”
Perizat Kairat: “On what basis? What evidence were you provided that your funds were indeed stolen?”
Zhanerke Satkynbekova: “But there is no evidence that they were not.”
Perizat Kairat: “I don't understand. The trial is still ongoing, and back then it was just an investigation.”
Zhanerke Satkynbekova: “Exactly, and I also want the truth.”
Perizat Kairat: “Here the judge makes a decision. And to write a statement, you need to have facts.”
Zhanerke Satkynbekova: “Everyone wrote, and I wrote too. I think the court will figure it out and help ordinary people like us, my teachers and students. They did everything for the fair with their own hands. We didn't sleep for three nights, preparing to collect money. We are agrieved, too.”
Perizat Kairat: “We also did a big job during the floods. We were on the front lines. And your money really went where it was intended.”
Zhanerke Satkynbekova: “Well, if they left for their intended purpose, you will prove it in court.”

The judge interrupted the questioning and ended the Zoom session.

Cash Withdrawal Scheme

In the afternoon, Adilkhan Musin, head of CA Consulting, appeared as a witness. He described how he, Kairat, and other associates handled nearly 900 million tenge in cash:

In the spring of 2024, floods began in Kazakhstan, it was a difficult period. In early April, Perizat and I called each other and met. She explained that the current situation is that yurts, bio-toilets and other goods are urgently needed, they need to be delivered to the regions. There are suppliers for this, some of the orders have already been fulfilled, but all this is in China. She showed photos and videos. She said that the Chinese entrepreneurs who produced these yurts and bio-toilets and the like, for some reason refuse to accept a non-cash transfer.

He told the court that Perizat Kairat had asked him to assist with cash payments to these suppliers and to help arrange accounts where non-cash transfers could be directed first:

I promised to look for people, I turned to acquaintances, trusted persons who are engaged in entrepreneurship. My friends, to whom I turn first of all, according to the same scheme, focused on cash, turned to brothers, friends with a request to provide assistance.

He said he believed the foundation would sign contracts, individual entrepreneurs would receive proper documentation, and they would request cash withdrawals from banks after the fund made transfers.

After the money was received from the account into the individual entrepreneurs' accounts, the entrepreneurs applied to the bank to receive these amounts in cash.

The money they withdrew was then transferred to me in cash, and I then gave it to Perizat Kairat. The money was accumulated with me. There were three, if I am not mistaken, meetings with her to transfer the money. I did not keep any records or calculations. At the time when the transfers took place, everything was at the level of trust, added Adilkhan Musin.

State prosecutor Arman Kiziken asked in what form the money was transferred to Perizat Kairat.

For convenience, we packed it all into bags, because the banks gave out already packed bundles of money. Then it was more convenient to put them into checkered Chinese bags. They were then handed over to her (Perizat Kairat) personally, loaded into the car. The bags were quite large, heavy, there, for one tranche, two or three individual entrepreneurs cashed the transfers, there was about 200 million tenge, Adilkhan Musin clarified.

According to the witness, one individual entrepreneur withdrew approximately 70 million tenge in cash, and 12 or 13 other individual entrepreneurs were involved in this transaction.

The total amount of cashed money amounted to between 840 and 910 million tenge.

Diploma Queries

Another witness, Tolganay, noted Kairat called her “Tosya.” Under cross-examination, when asked:

Prosecutor: “She wrote you these words: ‘Do you have any acquaintances through whom I can get a diploma from Kazakhstan?’”
Tolganay: “Yes, we had such a conversation… I think she was getting a job as an assistant to some minister at that time.”
Judge: “How did you understand (the phrasing - Ed.) ‘to muddle up a diploma’?”
Tolganay: “She might want to study by correspondence… get a diploma… to get a job in a government institution.”
Perizat Kairat: “I wanted to clarify this point, since my foreign diploma is not notarized.”
Tolganay: “Perizat asked… she asked the course of action… I sent her a photo or a scan.”

Ministry Appointment Attempt

Lyazzat Raspeki, who in 2023 headed the department of the Committee on Civil Society Affairs of the Ministry of Culture, Information and Social Development (now the Ministry of Culture and Information), gave testimony shedding light on Perizat Kairat’s alleged attempt to secure a government post without proper documentation.

I was engaged in the preparation of documents for the minister's secretariat. As for the order on the appointment of Perizat Kairat to the position of adviser to the Minister, on the day of drawing up this order, May 17, 2023, I was on leave. I did not know that an order was issued for Perizat Kairat that day. On May 18, 2023, I went to work, and an employee showed me this order signed by the head of the apparatus,
Lyazzat Raspeki said earlier during interrogation.

At the same time, the order had a number from the document registration log, but it was not registered in the e-Qyzmet electronic document management system.

In accordance with the law on civil service, the position of assistant and adviser to the Minister is taken without competition. The employee told me to do the rest of the paperwork myself. That day, Perizat Kairat came to the personnel department, but how she got into the ministry, I don't know,
the witness said.

Perizat Kairat then brought an autobiography and some other documents, but not all that was needed.

Among them, in particular, was not Perizat Kairat's higher education diploma, which was necessary. According to Lyazzat Raspeki, the job seeker promised to bring the diploma later, "since it was in a Malaysian university, where, according to her, she received a second or third education."

Earlier, Perizat had written on her Instagram page about her diploma from the University of Nottingham in the UK and her studies at Cambridge.

Meanwhile, among the official documents attached to the case, there is still not a single diploma.

An MKI employee, noticing the absence of a document on higher education, went to her superiors with an order to appoint her to the position of assistant to the Minister, which someone had already issued to Perizat Kairat while Lyazzat Raspeki was on leave.

The director of the personnel department, agreeing that the order had been issued illegally, went to the head of the ministry’s staff.

Upon his return, he gave instructions not to hire Perizat Kairat until she provided all the documents. On the same day, I gave the order for destruction. After that, Daryn Oralbayev was appointed acting assistant to the Minister from May 18, 2023,
Lyazzat Raspeki told.

On the same day in court, Judge Sabyrzhan Karimov granted the state prosecutors' motion to forcibly summon three victim representatives who had not appeared in court and had not given consent to disclose their testimony from the investigation.

He also informed that Perizat Kairat should prepare to give testimony — interrogation of the defendants is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Case Status

The court approved the state’s request to compel three absentee victims to appear and disclosed that they will begin questioning defendants this coming Monday.

Kairat and her mother face charges including fraud (Art. 190 p2‑4), money laundering (Art. 218 p2‑2), and legalization of the proceeds of crime (Art. 218 p3‑3).

Kairat was detained in autumn 2024; her assets were seized in December. She and her mother were taken into custody in April 2025. The case reached court on June 30, and parts of the trial are closed to the public.