Top managers of Saryarka are accused of wrongdoing

According to the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, several executive managers of the Social Entrepreneur Corporation Saryarka and officials of the Karaganda city’s administration have been put into custody. All of them are accused of abuse of power.

According to anti-corruption officials, these managers may be part of a plot to provide public land for investment purposes without benefit to the government.

«We can’t disclose any further details as we do not want to break the criminal law,» said Kanat Suleimenov, head of the pretrial investigations department under the Anti-Corruption Agency.

However, as the Kursiv edition wrote earlier, the legal case might be linked to a McDonald’s restaurant. Saryarka and FoodSolutionsKZ, which is the only McDonald’s partner in Kazakhstan, established a joint venture in order to run a fast food restaurant in Karaganda. Saryarka had given 0.2 hectares of public land in downtown Karagandato to the new company’s equity capital. When the restaurant was built, the investor bought this land for just $23,400, which is too low when compared to the market. As a result, the situation has led to legal prosecution.

The Saryarka Corporation was established in 2007 to facilitate the economic development of the Akmola and Karaganda regions and the city of Astana. The country’s government owns the corporation through the regional administration in Karaganda. FoodSolutions KZ is one of the many assets of Kairat Boranbayev, a member of the Nazarbayev clan. Currently, he is accused of embezzlement in the quasi-state sector and is now in custody.