Kazakhstan shuts down one of darkweb’s largest crypto service provider in CIS
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday held a meeting with the Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Agency, Zhanat Elimanov, Kazinform News Agency cites the press service of Akorda.
The meeting focused on the main outcomes of the Agency’s activities as well as plans for the upcoming period. The President was briefed about steps undertaken to combat money laundering.
Elimanov reported the Agency exposed fake companies via which over 24 billion tenge was cashed out; shut down 20 unauthorized crypto exchanges, laundering profits from drug sales and fraud. The Financial Monitoring Agency dissolved the largest crypto service provider in the CIS, which worked with 20 platforms on the darkweb and offered service to up to 200 drug stores; virtual assets worth 9.7 million US dollars were frozen, according to the Chairman.
The Kazakh President was briefed about completion of 720 criminal cases, as well as elimination of 15 organized crime groups, including three transnational ones.
Tokayev was informed about the crackdown on smuggling of 17.1 billion worth of petroleum products, and the shutdown of two underground tobacco production and 16 surrogate alcohol production workshops. Vapes worth 12 billion tenge were seized from the shadow economy.
The Agency prevented unreasonable budget spending of 164 billion tenge in large-scale infrastructure projects implementation and inefficient use of subsidies to the amount of 11 billion tenge in the agricultural sector. Facts of unjustified withdrawal of 200 billion tenge from the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) for fictitious dental services were revealed.
Elimanov also reported about 23 ongoing investigations against illegal provision of loans by microfinance organizations, causing financial losses worth 71 billion tenge. Work is underway to return and write-off debts of over 300,000 borrowers; 45 financial pyramids, which involved 112,000 citizens, were liquidated. The Agency shut down 31,500 scam websites and links to fraudulent projects and gambling games.
In conclusion, the Head of State set Chairman Zhanat Elimanov a number of tasks relating to the Agency’s key activities.
Earlier, it was reported the Head of State has been briefed on the results of the Constitutional Court's work.