A businesswoman in Kokshetau has been sentenced for defrauding 92 Kazakh citizens of about 70 million tenge by promising them jobs in the United Kingdom. The website infohub.kz reports.
According to the Kokshetau City Court, since 2024 the woman offered document processing services for work abroad. On social media, she posed as a blogger and actively advertised her services. She signed contracts with clients, arranged visas and medical insurance, and discussed departure dates to England. However, after receiving money, the fraudster disappeared.
Kazakh citizens paid between 250,000 and one million tenge in hopes of securing work in the UK. She failed to fulfill her obligations, and the total damage to the 92 victims reached about 70 million tenge.
The victims were recognized as 92 individuals from Kokshetau, Astana, Karaganda, and the Akmola, Karaganda, Kostanay, North Kazakhstan, and Kyzylorda regions. Her guilt was confirmed by victim testimony, documents, bank statements, and other case materials.
The businesswoman was found guilty of large-scale fraud under Article 190, Part 4, Clause 2 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. In addition to imprisonment, she was banned for five years from activities involving attracting citizens' money into commercial and other activities.
"The court recognized the presence of minor children as a mitigating circumstance. Since the convicted woman has two dependent children, the execution of the prison sentence was deferred for one year," the court said.
The court also granted civil claims from 28 victims. They were awarded material damages ranging from 200,000 to over 1 million tenge each.
The sentence has not yet entered into legal force.
Earlier, "Kursiv" reported on how a fake realtor in Kokshetau promised clients cheap apartments, a fraudster from Shymkent rented out "ghost apartments," and a scammer from Aktau sold non-existent meat on TikTok.