​Big secret of such a small company

By Zulfiya Bainekeeva

Criminal case against foreign employees of Atyrau branch of BMT ARGOS BV, two British engineers without proper education and appropriate qualification has been suspended.

To recall, the diploma of the London Institute of Applied Arts has been issued to the chief technical specialist Craig David Gray, and the diploma of the Chicago University to Coy Gavin Paul (for some reason at the age of 8). In July of 2015 the local Internal Affairs Department initiated a criminal case against them under the article 385 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan ("Fodging, production or sale of counterfeit documents"). We learnt about it in September, then, sitting in the editorial office, I easily found out that the London Institute of Applied Arts doesn't exist, and Mister Gavin Paul's name was never recorded in the archives of the Chicago University (see "Expats with fake diplomas"). And the Internal Affairs Department even commissioned technical expertise "for establishment of a way of production of diplomas of the above citizens", reads the official answer of the prosecutor's office. Then goes an untranslatable wordplay: "criminal case has been terminated because according to expert's opinion dated 21.08.2015 it was defined that copies of documents were made from the original document". The nonsense here is way over the limit: how expert managed to determine looking at the copies (!), that they were taken from the originals, considering the fact that the originals were not present in the case papers? It seems that the prosecutor's office also raised the same question, since they cancelled the decision of this proceeding, I quote, "due to failure to establish the original copies of expat's diplomas".

The Internal Affairs Department resumed proceeding on the case under the pressure from the prosecutor's office. But so far there is no movement on the case. Apparently, the police isn't interested in its investigation.

We were informed that expats have already managed to repudiate any connection with false diplomas issued on their names and state that they have no idea where those diplomas came from. Perhaps the Management of Coordination of Employment and Social Programs of Atyrau Oblast can shed light on the history of their origin? After all, it was this establishment that issued (and continues to issue) to "engineers" without education work permits in Kazakhstan? Yes, both British engineers continue to work in BMT ARGOS BV, as if nothing happened. NCOC N.V's contractor company regularly pays different penalties for the numerous violations of the Kazakhstan legislation. By the way, the fact of concealment of taxes from the state in the amount of 1,2 billion tenge is investigated in the same manner as the case of the above employees. It seems that this small company possesses some phenomenal immunity before our investigative bodies.