Kazakhstan: Ex-head of the company, formerly owned by Nazarbayev’s daughter, was arrested
The Anti-Corruption Agency has arrested the former CEO of the EPO Operator, Svetlana Korotenko. She is suspected of embezzling over $52 million.
There is a little information about the arrest of Korotenko in the press service of the Anti-Corruption Agency.
“A pre-trial investigation has been launched against the former General Director of the EPO Operator LLP on the fact of embezzlement of the enterprise’s funds in the period of 2016-2021 by establishing an inflated cost for the utilization of vehicles. At the same time, earlier on suspicion of committing a corruption crime, the Vice Minister of Ecology and the Chairman of the Board of EPO Operator LLP were detained,” was reported.
As ACCA has already reported, the EPO Operator private company, which was engaged in collecting recycling fees for cars in Kazakhstan, previously belonged to Aliya Nazarbayeva, the youngest daughter of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Permission for the EPO Operator to collect recycling fees was once issued by the then Prime Minister Karim Masimov, who is now under arrest on suspicion of attempting to carry out a coup d’état.
However, after the January events in Kazakhstan, the EPO Operator was transferred to the ownership of the state under the donation agreement, that is, it was actually nationalized.
It’s also worth adding that Svetlana Korotenko is a citizen of Ukraine. She headed the EPO Operator company in 2016-2019. At the same time, Korotenko and Aliya Nazarbayeva were connected not only by the EPO Operator, but also by creativity. So, judging by open data, in 2016 Korotenko was the producer of the film “The Road to mother” by Kazakh director Akan Satayev. The general producer of this film was the youngest daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev.
