Shanyrak Head Almasbek Sadyrbay Detained

He is suspected of fraud on an especially large scale, Orda.kz reports.

The Almaty Region FMA Department and the regional prosecutor's office detained an agricultural activist. According to their information, he led a group that created fictitious agricultural cooperatives in five districts: Balkhash, Enbekshikazakh, Kegen, Raimbek, and Uyghur.

 Using this scheme, more than 1.2 billion tenge was embezzled.

The main goal was to illegally obtain subsidies for insemination of breeding stock of small livestock and compensation for feed costs. For this purpose, farms were involved, which, contrary to the law, did not have agricultural land, the agency reported.

False applications, indicating fictitious cadastral numbers, to receive money from the state were submitted remotely. 

In this case, the digital signatures of the heads of agricultural cooperatives were used, without their knowledge, FMA said.

Almasbek Sadyrbay has been detained. His accomplice is under house arrest.

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva