Zhomart Yertaev. Photo by Stanislav Alekseyev, Wikipedia.org
Former Kazakh banker Zhomart Yertaev, convicted in 2020 of embezzling 144 billion tenge ($266 million) from RBK Bank, has been released from prison under an amnesty. The Committee of the Penal Enforcement System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told Tengrinews.kz that Yertaev has been placed under probationary supervision for further monitoring.
In November 2020, Yertaev was sentenced to 11 years in prison with confiscation of property for large-scale embezzlement from Bank RBK. Investigators said the crimes were committed between 2011 and 2017. Yertaev, who was an adviser to the bank’s chairman, allegedly arranged a loan for a shell company. He maintained that he had no influence over the bank’s lending decisions.
When RBK Bank ran into crisis in 2017, Yertaev was asked to repay debts or hand over his shares in the telecommunications company Almatel Kazakhstan (Alma-TV). Later, he was charged with fraud. Yertaev claimed that the case was an attempt to strip him of his business.
In the years before his arrest, Yertaev lived in Russia, where he was detained several times. In May 2018, he was placed under house arrest, later released with refugee status, then stripped of that status and detained again. He was placed under house arrest once more before being transferred to a pre-trial detention facility. In March 2019, Yertaev was extradited to Kazakhstan and taken into custody, with his detention repeatedly extended.
In March 2021, he received another prison sentence for embezzling bank loan funds secured by fake grain receipts. He was sentenced to nine years, while his first sentence was reduced from 11 to nine years.
In total, Yertaev spent five years behind bars.
Kazakh media have linked Yertaev to Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev. For several years, he headed Alma-TV as general director, a company owned by Nazarbayeva and her son, Nurali Aliyev.
