Kazakhstan detains former vice-minister of industry, infrastructure development

Kazakhstan's former Vice-Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Timur Toktabaev has been detained. He is suspected of power abuse.

The Agency for Counteracting Corruption reported this, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Kazakh media.

"It was established that officials of the ministry, acting in the interests of certain business entities, under the pretext of exploration, without holding an auction, illegally transferred deposits for which the reserves of solid minerals had already been established. The fact of earlier exploration was deliberately concealed by falsification of documents," the agnecy said.

It added that businessmen affiliated with govrmnet officials received already ready-to-mining deposits for a minimal price, violating the principles of competition. The state did not get tens of billions of tenge (Kazakh currency) since auctions for the selling of deposits were not performed. 

The investigation has established and with the sanction of the court has arrested the expensive movable and immovable property of Timur Toktabaev and his close relatives. The investigation is underway. In particular, the court arrested the elite private houses, plots of land, cars Cadillac Escalade, Mercedes-Benz Maybach S580 4 Matic, two BMW X5 Xdrive40I, Bentley Bentayga V8, which belong to the ex-official and his family.