The Stepnogorsk city court has sentenced a director of a second-tier bank branch and a cashier to seven years in prison for embezzling a total of 255 million tenge, reports the website infohub.kz.
According to the press service of the Akmola Regional Court, the branch director, identified as Sh., in collusion with the cashier, K., organized the theft of funds from the credit institution. From November to December 2022, following the director's instructions, the cashier regularly removed sums of 1 million, 3 million, and 8 million tenge from the vault and handed them over to him. The director provided the employee with bags and a backpack for the money, which he then carried out of the bank building. According to the audit report, the total shortfall exceeded 255 million tenge.
The defendants' guilt was confirmed by a body of evidence: the audit report, an auditor's opinion, an expertise on the shortfall, witness testimony, confessions from the accused, bank surveillance footage, and other case materials.
The court classified their actions as embezzlement, i.e., theft of another's property by a group of persons in prior conspiracy, using official position, on an especially large scale (Paragraph 2 of Part 4 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Mitigating circumstances included the director's sincere repentance, as well as the cashier's young age and positive references.
The court sentenced Sh. and K. each to seven years of imprisonment, with a five-year ban on holding financially responsible positions in organizations and institutions. Regarding compensation for damages, the victim was informed of the right to file a civil lawsuit. The verdict has not entered into force. Bank branch employees attended the sentencing hearing for preventive purposes.