In the Almaty region, a court has sentenced 17 members of an organized crime group involved in the illegal registration of over 800 vehicles. Depending on each defendant's role, the court handed down sentences ranging from 2 to 11 years in prison, according to infohub.kz.
According to the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), the total amount of unpaid state fees exceeded 6.6 billion tenge. An investigation by the AFM department for the Almaty region established that the criminal group had been facilitating the illegal registration of cars for two years, bypassing established requirements.
In the first phase, the group illegally registered 642 trucks imported into Kazakhstan in violation of technical regulations. Subsequently, they turned to passenger cars using the so-called "twin revival" scheme: illegally imported vehicles were assigned VIN codes of cars previously registered in Kazakhstan and then deregistered. This method was used to register an additional 209 vehicles.
The illegal scheme involved police officers, employees of the Specialized Service Center (SpetsTsON), and private notaries who ensured the entry of false information into information systems and the issuance of powers of attorney to figureheads. The unpaid registration fees totaled 5.4 billion tenge, and recycling fees 1.2 billion tenge.
During the investigation, vehicle owners voluntarily paid the initial registration fees, resulting in over 1 billion tenge being reimbursed to the state. Additionally, by court order, five cars purchased with criminal proceeds were confiscated to the state.
Four former police officers were stripped of their special ranks. The court also imposed a ban on notarial activities for the involved notaries. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.