Kazakhstan Court Convicts Four in Massive Livestock Subsidy Fraud Scheme
A court in Kazakhstan’s Turkestan Region has concluded a major subsidy fraud case involving five individuals. They were accused of falsely registering nearly 100,000 head of nonexistent livestock to steal state funds. The trial ended with four convictions and the recovery of millions in stolen money.
Prosecutors initially charged five guys with embezzling 271 million tenge in agricultural subsidies. The group had allegedly created fake records for small livestock in an official information system. This allowed them to claim and receive payments illegally.
The court sentenced four defendants to five and a half years in prison each. A fifth guy received a suspended sentence. Despite the convictions, the case was later closed under an amnesty law.
Authorities have since recovered 50 million tenge of the stolen funds. Additionally, assets worth 120 million tenge were seized as part of the investigation. The defendants’ names were not released to the public.
The fraud scheme involved falsifying records to obtain state subsidies for livestock that did not exist. With the case now closed, the recovered funds and seized assets will return to state control. The verdicts mark the end of a lengthy legal process over the stolen subsidies.
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