​Serik Akhmetov officially accused of undermining authority of government, causing 1bn KZT damage

Ex-Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov was officially accused of “undermining the authority of the government"causing material damage to the state in the amount of more than 1 billion KZT, Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reports.

The indictment was read out at the Karaganda specialized inter-district criminal court on August 11.

Several public prosecutors voiced court charges against former high-ranking officials of Karaganda region.

Serik Akhmetov is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for his assistance in making up contracts for the construction of infrastructure of the Industrial Park "Metallurgy and Metal Processing", as well as abuse of power.

“Akhmetov, holding that-time the position of the Governor of Karaganda region, was aware about the program of phased lighting of central streets in Karaganda city. 100 million tenge were allocated from the local budget for the implementation of the program. Akhmetov decided to attract "StalTsink" LLP into the implementation of the project and co-founder of the company was his son Daniyar Akhmetov and Deputy Director – his brother Berik Akhmetov," the prosecutors said.

Astana-based “StalTsink" LLP works in the construction industry, its production include road safety barriers, hot-dip galvanizing, metal products, lighting poles, metal structures, and other.

“Creating conditions for attarcting “StalTsink" LLP into the program, Mr. Akhmetov using his official powers assigned that-time Karaganda city mayor Baurzhan Abdishev to use the above-mentioned company's materials during the implementation of program," prosecutor Rauan Tobykov read out the indictment.

Consequently, all the contractors working on the lighting of Karaganda city we were forced to purchase galvanized posts from the company owned by Akhmetov's relatives. In this case, all legal procedures for choosing the subcontracting companies were ignored, the prosecutor said.

“Akhmetov is also accused of undermining the authority of the government in the eyes of the people of Kazakhstan," said in the indictment.

Illegal actions of Abdishev, Akhmetov, and Zhakenov undermined the authority of the government in the eyes of the people of Kazakhstan causing material damage to the state in the amount of 95.9 million tenge, said in the indictment.

The total damage from the criminal actions of Serik Akhmetov and other officials is estimated at 1.128 billion tenge.

In total 21 former senior officials are involved in the major corruption case. The trial kicked off August 10 at the specialized inter-district criminal court of Karaganda region.

Source: akipress.org