A court in Taraz has closed the case of Sultan Makhmadov, the founder of BM LLC known as the 'vodka king,' finding him guilty of conducting business without a license but releasing him under an amnesty, reports infohub.kz.
Makhmadov was detained in 2025. At the time, the Financial Monitoring Agency reported the seizure of 122,000 liters of alcohol worth over 280 million tenge, 18 mining rigs, and seven cars. Investigators alleged that a criminal group organized the production, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol without a license, disguising the operation as bioethanol and feed additive production.
Makhmadov and three employees of the affiliated company Apriori-Taraz LLC — Rustam Kadimov, Marat Biryukov, and Olga Varavina — were charged with creating and participating in a criminal group, as well as illegal entrepreneurship. Makhmadov was also accused of aiding illegal mining.
The court found only one episode proven. It established that 69,684 liters of ethyl alcohol worth 128.4 million tenge were stored in a tank on the premises of a production base in Taraz. However, BM LLC's license to produce ethyl alcohol had been revoked in 2016, and Apriori-Taraz LLC never held a license for alcohol trade. Makhmadov, as deputy director for technical issues and de facto head of Apriori-Taraz, was aware of this.
Makhmadov's charges were reclassified from Article 214, Part 2, Items 1 and 2 (illegal entrepreneurship by a group generating especially large income) to Article 214, Part 1 (operating without a license for storing excisable goods on a significant scale). He was sentenced to one year of restricted freedom with a two-year ban on holding managerial positions, but was released from the main punishment under an amnesty.
The episode involving the carrying of a cold weapon was dismissed due to the statute of limitations (one year for criminal misdemeanors). Makhmadov was acquitted on the mining charge. The 18 mining rigs found on site had operated for only 190 days between 2021 and 2025. Income from April 1, 2023 (when mining became licensed) amounted to 35.4 million tenge, below the threshold for major damage of 10,000 MCI (39.3 million tenge in 2025). No evidence linking the wallets to Makhmadov was presented.
The court fully acquitted all four defendants on the remaining charges (illegal production, storage, and sale of ethyl alcohol in 2017, 2024–2025, and creation of an organized criminal group). Additionally, the prosecutor's decision to rescind the closure of the 2017 case was deemed unlawful, as the statute of limitations had expired in 2019.
The verdict has not entered into force.