The company TOO Asia Gas Chundzha, which belonged to Kairat Boranbayev, will finally officially be transferred to the balance sheet of state assets. This became known last week. Although the trial on the case took place more than a year ago. In addition to Boranbayev, the deputy of JSC NC QazaqGaz Taiyr Zhanuzak was convicted at that time. The Anticor investigation revealed embezzlement of 14 billion tenge. And where are the remaining hundreds of billions? Immediately after Kantar, the new management of the national company announced violations in the gas industry worth almost a trillion tenge. KOMPROMAT RU tried to figure out what other financial fraud could have occurred in the gas industry, headed at that time by Dariga Nazarbayeva’s husband Kairat Sharipbayev.

In the courtroom, we familiarized ourselves with the verdict of that very case. It reveals in detail the details of the fraud, concerning not only the process itself. For example, from the testimony of witness A. D. Kulsartov, who worked as deputy chief accountant of the national company, it became clear: in 2022, the new management of the company conducted an internal audit and discovered as many as 40 companies affiliated with the previous management. All companies were awarded contracts with inflated prices.

We were interested in Timur Kuttukov, who was a witness in the case. The company he manages, Bolashak Property LLP, as we found out, is directly affiliated with Kairat Sharipbayev (he headed QazaqGaz NC JSC before Kantar). The founder of this enterprise is another LLP, Invest Bolashak; it, in turn, has Danco Commerce LLP, the owner of which is a company registered in the UAE, Danco investment group FZE. Danco Commerce is currently managed by Askar Abenov. Before him, Kairat Sharipbayev’s first wife, Zhanar Seidvalieva, was the general director of the LLP. 

Bolashak Property owned the Bolashak business center, located in Astana at 12 Alikhan Bokeikhan Street. Now the building belongs to the national company QazaqGaz and is listed on the balance sheet of QazaqGaz Onimderi LLP. But until 2022, all quasi-state enterprises in the gas industry paid the owner of the building for office rent far from the market rate.

Business center Bolashak. Photo: KOMPROMAT RU

In an official request addressed to JSC NC QazaqGaz, we inquired about the amounts paid by the national company and its subsidiaries for office rent from 2014 to 2022. We did not receive any figures in response. But the management of QazaqGaz informed us that the case materials are in the Prosecutor General’s Office, and therefore "belong to the category of limited access."

In theory, the national company could provide the amount of rental payments without referring to the materials held by the prosecutor’s office. Most likely, the current management of JSC  " NK "QazaqGaz"" is not ready to wash dirty linen in public and make public the real amounts of theft. 

Unfortunately, the Samruk-Kazyna procurement website provides information on procurements made only since 2018, so we were able to see the amounts spent by the national company and its subsidiaries on office space rental only over the past five years. But this information is quite sufficient to estimate the amount of money withdrawn by the previous management from the budget of JSC NC QazaqGaz and its subsidiaries under the guise of office space rental.

Photo: KOMPROMAT RU

All these purchases were carried out in the favorite way of national companies and government agencies - "from one source", that is, without an open tender and a competitive environment that could provide alternative proposals from market participants. A loophole in the procurement rules approved by Samruk-Kazyna, in capable hands turned out to be a "black hole" in which tens of billions of public money disappeared during almost 10 years of Kairat Sharipbayev’s leadership of the gas industry.

How inadequate the rental price was for the market can be seen from the single-source procurement decisions on the zakup.sk.kz website. The tenants intended to spend tens of billions of tenge just on rental services for 2021–2023 from a company owned by their boss.

QazaqGaz’s decision No. 488836 dated October 7, 2020 states that the company planned to spend almost 600 million tenge in 2021, 618 million tenge in 2022, and 637 million tenge in 2023.  

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

According to decision No. 488968 dated October 7, 2020, Intergas Central Asia JSC planned to pay about three billion tenge for office rent from 2021 to 2023 - almost a billion annually. 

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

By decision No. 488785 of October 6, 2020, Amangeldy Gas LLP was going to pay Sharipbaev’s company about a billion tenge over three years.  

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

According to our sources, the most wealthy subsidiary of QazaqGaz, JSC Intergas Central Asia (ICA), shortly before renting premises in Bolashak in 2015, sold its offices in the KazMunayGas building in Astana on Round Square at 19 Kabanbai Batyr Street at a market price of seven billion tenge. With the proceeds, the management could have purchased a good office building. After all, in 2015, after the devaluation, prices for office space fell by 20 percent in six months.

If you don’t buy, you could rent the most expensive office in the center of the capital at that time for no more than 9,000 tenge per square meter per month. Moreover, the rent would include cleaning and security of the premises. On average, in the first quarter of 2015, the rental rate for office space was $23.7/sq. m (4,368 tenge/sq. m) (data from the website kn.kz). 

At that time, the Samruk-Kazyna Fund offered companies in the holding to rent offices in buildings on Konayev Street, near the government and opposite Akorda, for less than 9,000 tenge/sq. m, also with security and cleaning of the premises.

The same Intergaz Central Asia, according to insider information, under the lease agreement for office premises from IP Kogai F.V. (the business center, which belonged to Bolashak Property LLP, was leased by this IP) was supposed to pay the owner of the property seven billion tenge in just three years from 2016 (the amount received from the sale of premises in one of the most prestigious buildings in the capital).

In April 2022, Bolashak Property LLP suddenly turned to the state with a request to accept this office building as a gift.

“Based on the appeals of Bolashak Property LLP dated April 26, 2022 No. 17/20 and dated May 25, 2022 No. 18/25, in accordance with the Rules for the acquisition of property rights by the state under a donation agreement, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated September 28, 2011 No. 1103, by order of the committee, the building of the Bolashak business center was accepted into republican state ownership,” the   State Property and Privatization Committee said in its response to our question about who the owner of the business center is.

Then the building was transferred to Samruk-Kazyna, from where it was transferred to QazaqGaz. And the national company has already assigned it to the balance sheet of its subsidiary QazaqGaz Onimderi LLP.

In the same letter, the committee reports that the Independent Valuation and Legal Center valued the business center at 16,915,397,000 tenge at the time of its transfer as payment for the fund’s shares. That is, the administrative building was transferred as payment for shares worth 16 billion tenge. Unfortunately, we do not know how adequate the estimated value was to the market. 

After Sharipbayev made a generous gift to the state, gas companies significantly reduced the amounts for renting administrative premises. On the Samruk-Kazyna procurement website, we found out how much the prices had been inflated before: from three and a half times (QazaqGaz) to five to six times (Intergaz Central Asia JSC and Amangeldy Gas LLP).

Decision No. 721494 of May 24, 2022 shows that the national company rents the same premises two years later for  three and a half times less . 

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

Decision No. 721524 of May 24, 2022 shows that the premises for which Intergas Central Asia JSC was going to pay a billion per year can, it turns out, be rented for 180 million, that is,  six times cheaper.

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

Amangeldy Gas LLP, by decision No. 720770 dated May 23, 2022, rents offices in the same business center two years later for 40 million tenge instead of the original planned price of 240 million tenge. That is,  almost six times cheaper . 

Screenshot from the site zakup.sk.kz

We are interested in what will happen to the excess rent. The commission for the return of illegally exported assets is not involved in this matter. Could the building donated by the previous management of the national company be an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution for theft? We understand that in the current circumstances, the previous owner of the business center had no other choice but to get rid of the problematic asset. If the case had gone to court, as in the case of another Kairat (Boranbayev), the building could have been confiscated in favor of the state for the crimes committed. Or did the Prosecutor General’s Office decide to limit itself to one Kairat and not hold Elbasy’s son-in-law accountable, contenting itself with the donated building?

Photo: KOMPROMAT RU

The scale of the thefts becomes obvious if we consider the amounts paid by the subsidiaries of the national company that rented premises in the business center. Probably, the scheme of profit withdrawal through rent was not the only way for individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of the company’s resources. The expenses of the national company include not only rent, but also other budget items: for example, information services, construction work. The connection of some service providers with certain individuals is obvious - many of them, being confident in their safety, were even located in the same building, we will write about this in the next publication.

The position of the new management of QazaqGaz, the injured party, is surprising. It shows no initiative in investigating all the revealed facts of theft and compensating for the damage caused. If it was possible to recover the damage in the case of natural gas supplies, why are there still no court proceedings on other episodes?

With this approach to cost management, the company’s management can no longer justify its losses with low service rates. Next year, QazaqGaz plans to go public. But first, the company must put its affairs in order and return previously withdrawn funds, including rent costs and other cases of theft.