A sports and wellness complex formerly owned by businessman Kairat Boranbayev and transferred to the state has been sold at auction in Astana. The Fitnation complex fetched 2.3 billion tenge, infohub.kz reports.

The auction was held at 10:00 on 3 November and has now been declared successful. According to the electronic trading platform, the complex comprises a building with annexes totalling 4,043.4 square metres and more than 500 items of property.

The complex was on the books of the Daulet state municipal enterprise under the Astana akimat, and the seller was the capital's Department of Assets and Public Procurement.

The starting price for the lot was just over 2 billion tenge, while in October this year the complex was offered for 2.9 billion tenge, but found no buyers at that time.

Businessman Kairat Boranbayev was detained in March 2022: he and a group of individuals were accused of embezzling 14.5 billion tenge in the purchase of liquefied petroleum gas and of laundering criminally obtained funds.

The trial began in late December 2022. The prosecution alleged that Boranbayev transferred his share of the embezzled funds to an account at a Swiss bank and also bought premises in Almaty. Boranbayev denied guilt and said he did not understand what he was accused of.

In March 2023 Boranbayev was found guilty and sentenced to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property and a lifetime ban on holding certain positions. In July of that year the verdict against Boranbayev, Nakhanov and Zhanuzak was overturned, and an appellate panel hearing was scheduled.

The Agency for Financial Monitoring later reported that Boranbayev had returned assets worth 90 billion tenge to the state, including an oil field, a gas distribution company, shopping centres, hotels and fitness centres. He also transferred another 30 billion tenge to the Education Infrastructure Support Fund.

The prosecutor subsequently sought a new sentence for Boranbayev — 6 years in prison instead of eight. The prosecutor's office explained why the requested term was shorter than the previous, overturned punishment.

The court soon granted Boranbayev's request and replaced the unserved part of his sentence with restriction of liberty. The businessman was released from prison. Kairat Boranbayev posted on his Instagram profile thanking those who had supported him.

Boranbayev also lost a court case over the former McDonald's in Belarus.