Eight members of an organized criminal group have been sentenced in Aktau for running the "Sax Invest" financial pyramid, according to infohub.kz.
According to the Financial Monitoring Agency, the organizers posed as an investment fund offering stakes in securities, financial instruments, and other assets, and claimed involvement in an international diamond mining project in African countries. From 2018 to 2022, they lured over a thousand depositors from Astana, Aktobe, Uralsk, and Aktau, collecting more than 9 billion tenge.
"The investigation found that a significant portion of the investments went to the organizers' personal accounts rather than company accounts. The money was later used for personal expenses, including gambling, buying apartments, building a private house, and other needs," the agency said.
The court found all eight guilty and sentenced them to 6 to 7 years in prison. A private house and digital assets were confiscated. Additionally, property including two cars, two apartments, and a land plot remains seized pending civil claims. The verdict is not yet final.
In November 2024, the Mangistau Regional Department of the Financial Monitoring Agency had conducted a pre-trial investigation into individuals running a branch of the Sax Invest pyramid, noting that over 1,000 people had become depositors between 2018 and 2022.