Two Kazakhstanis Convicted in Kyrgyzstan for Selling Fake Dollars

Two citizens of Kazakhstan have been convicted in Bishkek for selling counterfeit U.S. dollars. Each was sentenced to five years in prison and will be expelled from Kyrgyzstan after serving their terms, Orda.kz reports, citing Kaktus.media.

According to the investigation, in December 2023 two Kazakhstanis, identified in court materials as Yerasyl and Zhandos, brought counterfeit $100 bills to Bishkek with a total face value of $70,000. They handed the money to an accomplice named Ali, who then involved three local residents in the scheme.

They deposited a fake $10,800 through bank terminals and exchanged another $600 at private currency exchange points. Ali then handed the real $2,000 received from the transactions to Zhandos at the border with Kazakhstan.the court said.

The bank suffered losses of 952,000 soms, or more than 5 million tenge. Three Kyrgyz citizens who took part in the scheme were fined 50,000 soms each, about 265,000 tenge, for concealing the crime.

The prosecutor’s office tried to overturn the sentence, arguing that the court had applied an amnesty without sufficient grounds because the convicts had not compensated three quarters of the damage. However, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling. Under the amnesty, the Kazakhstanis had their remaining sentence reduced by one third.

Original author: Ruslan loginov

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