Kazakhstan: an employee of government fund is suspected of embezzlement

The Anti-Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan has detained the acting director of the Debt Collection Department of the Problem Loans Fund on suspicion of embezzlement on an especially large scale.

As noted in the message, this employee of the Fund, during the purchase of collateral in the form of an elevator located in Aktobe region, by fraud and abuse of trust, committed theft of another’s property worth more than $50 000. Moreover, according to the anti-corruption fighters, the suspect acted not alone, but in a group of persons and by prior conspiracy.

To date, he has been detained and placed in the temporary detention center of the city of Nur-Sultan. The issue of choosing a preventive measure is being decided.

It should be clarified that the Problem Loans Fund is a structure managed by the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan, the sole shareholder of which is the government of the Republic.

The fund was created in 2012 to assist banks in the process of “clearing” the balance of “non-performing” loans in order to fulfill the strategic objective of improving the quality of the loan portfolio in the banking system.

The main activity of the Fund is the repurchase of distressed assets (and their management) from banks and legal entities that were previously banks.

The Board of directors of the Problem Loans Fund today includes the First Vice Minister of Finance Berik Sholpankulov, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on State Property and Privatization under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kalymzhan Ibraimov and others.