Almaty, 12 November. The Almaty Department of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) has completed its investigation of the director of Bal halal LLP over the theft of KZT 945 million from funds allocated by the Science Fund JSC for the commercialisation of scientific developments, the AFM press service said.
In 2023–2024 the company received KZT 1.15 billion for four projects: producing innovative pasta from plant-based raw materials and flour enriched with micronutrients. The money was meant for buying equipment, preparing premises, purchasing raw materials and components, installation and launching production. Investigative experiments, the AFM says, showed that the equipment bought cannot produce the products the projects called for.
According to the investigation, KZT 736.4 million was transferred, under the guise of payment for equipment and other services, to SMART 15 LLP, registered to affiliated persons. The scheme also involved Fabrika Reklamy Shymkent LLP, Jana tan LLP and the individual entrepreneur Sisters Brand KZ. After cashing out funds, the suspect paid KZT 88.5 million in cash into Bal halal’s accounts and presented it as the company’s own co-financing of the projects.
Oversight of the projects, the release says, was a formality: monitoring reports were drawn up without visiting the sites or checking the work done, and were prepared by Bal halal’s own staff, while members of the monitoring groups signed the documents. The suspect has been placed in custody, and by court order her property worth KZT 830 million has been seized: five plots of land, four cars, an apartment in the capital, commercial premises and jewellery.
Earlier we also wrote about how auditors found violations of KZT 51 billion in science spending.
What it means: Some reports on the case give KZT 1.15 billion as the stolen sum, but that is the entire amount of funding allocated; according to the investigation, the damage came to KZT 945 million. Everything above is the investigators’ version: there is no verdict, and guilt is decided by a court.
What we know now: The investigation is complete, the suspect is in custody and property has been seized; the AFM named the companies through which, according to the investigation, the money was moved. Unknown: the director’s name and the article of the Criminal Code (neither is in the release), when the case will go to court, what Bal halal and the Science Fund say, and what measures apply to members of the monitoring groups.
Background: Spending on science came under state audit the day before: the Higher Audit Chamber found financial violations of KZT 51 billion.
