Mess in Kazakhstan: how the state fights successful companies, arranging robberies and threatening people with violence – Mass media

Under the guise of an investigation, law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan appropriated the property of “B2B Jewerly” clients worth millions of dollars.

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The public of the post-Soviet countries continues to follow the attempts of the security forces of Ukraine and Kazakhstan to destroy the international project “B2B Jewerly”. Currently, illegal searches, detentions and seizure of material assets from the network of “B2B Jewerly” franchise stores continue on the territory of the mentioned countries. Apparently, in Kazakhstan, the security forces were carrying out a presidential order, which, judging by their actions, is very similar to a raider seizure of a successful enterprise with elements of political violence.

Recall that the authorship of the idea of the “B2B Jewerly” project belongs to the famous Ukrainian jeweler, entrepreneur and philanthropist Mykola Gonta.

As it turned out, as a result of a journalistic investigation, the real reason for conducting searches and persecuting the project’s organizers was the refusal of the leadership to pay regular tribute to corrupt government officials. But first things first.

NewsWeek has studied expert opinions and data from open and own sources and presents its version of the events that affected many people and showed the level of corruption in the law enforcement agencies of the post-soviet states.

Bandits in uniform

On one of the quiet evenings of the summer of 2020, people in uniform stormed into the store of the “B2B jewelry” company in Almaty. All employees were put against the wall without explanation, and valuables – jewelry, cash from the cash desks, were just piled into cardboard boxes and carried away in an unknown direction. People who looked like robbers and looters presented themselves as employees of the Economic Investigation Service (EIS). No description, witnesses, or fixing of actions was made. Everything was done secretly, with the grossest violations of procedural norms and the apparent intent to hide from the public what was happening.

The surveillance camera of one of the stores in Almaty recorded the removal of jewelry boxes late in the evening.

Thus, after several months of such raids and searches in the salons and offices of the “B2B Jewerly” company in Kazakhstan, the security forces from the EIS actually stole valuables in the amount of about 5 million US dollars!

(More about the search https://ru.sputnik.kz/20201015/kazakhstantsy-piramida-b2b-Jewelry-15202781.html)

Even in the most backward countries with mad tyrants, such incidents with international companies are a rarity! And in Kazakhstan, a country that claims to have a democratic status, this looks like an unacceptable mess.

Why did the Kazakh security forces gang up on a successful international franchise, like McDonald’s or KFC, that provided jobs and a stable income for thousands of Kazakhs? What made them act in the style of gang warfare?

A story of failed success

To understand what is going on, you need to look back a little and see the reason for the unprecedented popularity of “B2B Jewerly” among ordinary people and the middle class.

Many experts asked why this project had such an incredible, instant success among the population of the post-soviet countries. Indeed, this is just multi-level (or as they used to call network) marketing, which is more inherent in the Western market.

However, the “B2B Jewerly” project made a splash and attracted tens of thousands of educated, solvent people. Unlike financial pyramids, where the client is fed only with promises, the idea of “B2B Jewerly” was initially based on providing clients with real gold. Moreover, not with scrap, but with jewelry, the purchase of which was a condition for participation in the project.

Imagine that you decide to buy a gold pendant or earrings for yourself, or a gift, it doesn’t matter. And so you came to the jewelry store. You chose a product and bought it. And at the checkout, they tell you – do you mind if we try to return you the total cost of the product in parts during the year plus another bonus? How’s that? Just so! Come back in a week. You come back in a week, and you are already getting back a good part of your purchase. Damn, half of the city will stay at this store in a week!

This is what happened in reality! Customers massively came to “B2B Jewerly” stores. Everyone wanted to buy jewelry with a guarantee of getting their money back (cashback). “Sharm” factories, where jewelry was made, increased production and opened hundreds of new jobs. The project’s financial partners worked under applicable laws and did not violate the rules for conducting financial activities. As of August 2020, the “B2B Jewelry” project in Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan numbered around 400,000 (four hundred thousand) participants.

It is quite possible that this project could become a dizzying success story with a happy ending in another reality in another world. Moreover, not only for the top of the company but for all project participants.  But the founders and branch managers of “B2B Jewerly” didn’t count on one single factor that turned out to be decisive. Namely – the factor of incredible greed and venality of state structures and law enforcement agencies of those countries where the project was unfolding.

It is no secret that law enforcement agencies in the countries of the former USSR are highly corrupt. Let’s face it, there is not a single direction where good money is circulating without not being controlled by various bodies – the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor’s Office, the SSU, the Tax Administration and other structures.

Naturally, the rapid and massive success of “B2B Jewerly” wasn’t left behind by the leadership of law enforcement agencies. In Ukraine, the company was taken over by the SSU. In Kazakhstan, under the guise of fighting financial pyramid schemes, raids on successful financial projects were supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office under the personal control of the country’s President Tokayev himself.

It is worth noting that for many months until the authorities intervened, the promised payments to “B2B Jewelry” buyers in those countries where the project stores operated were made on time and in full.

This is confirmed by law enforcement officers as well. Thus, in an interview with the Ukrainian portal MINFIN in May 2021, a high-ranking SSU officer who conducted the investigation speaks directly about the colossal amount of payments that “B2B Jewelry” made to its clients for a long time until they were shut down. «…some participants took 150-200 thousand UAH. …Unfortunately, we cannot calculate the exact amount of cash deposited. Approximately we can talk about the amount of payments. We calculated that they make millions of UAH payments per week (cashback, -ed.)”. The SSU investigator was well aware of what he was talking about.

Not surprisingly, immediately after the authorities intervened in the work of “B2B Jewerly” and conducted illegal searches, regular payments that the company previously made were blocked. Which naturally caused panic and unrest among customers, and the authorities were quick to accuse the project management of stopping payments, which is a pure lie.

It is important to note here that in Ukraine, the investigating authorities and justice still somehow observe formalities and are forced to look back at public opinion. Probably for this reason, “B2B Jewerly” continues to operate successfully in Ukraine, where they have not been able to formulate a legal accusation against Mykola Gonta. And the criminal case opened against him in 2019 has long been lost in the offices of the main investigative department. By the way, Ukrainians still use the services of the project. But in Kazakhstan, the appearance of legality is not even cared for. The interests of the Kazakhs have long ceased to form a vector of their existence in the government and the total power vertical. Therefore, the fate of the “B2B Jewerly” project in Kazakhstan deserves a separate chapter.

Did Tokayev permit to rob “B2B Jewerly”?

As already mentioned, at the time of the start of the investigation and the shutdown of many “B2B Jewerly” branches by the summer of 2020, there were no complaints from customers in Ukraine or Kazakhstan about cashback payments. Even quarantine did not become an obstacle to work.

Moreover, Kazakh branches of “B2B Jewerly” were opened all over the country, which could not go unnoticed by the authorities. 

As the founder of the project, Mykola Gonta himself told our correspondent: «We just did not calculate the level of corruption of the authorities of the countries where our business developed. In particular, of Kazakhstan, where they just wanted to squeeze “B2B Jewerly”, judging by their actions. Timely payment of all taxes, creation of thousands of jobs, and improving citizens’ welfare – all this was not enough for their governing bodies. As a result, despite the absolute legitimacy of the project, the appetites of the Kazakh authorities were unbearable for us, and the conditions for continued work were unacceptable. We realized that we would not be allowed to work here. And I regret that thousands of Kazakhs have suffered because of the greed and corruption of the state structures, although we make every effort to ensure that our obligations to the people are fulfilled, and we do not abandon our clients under any circumstances. We offered the only possible option for our clients in Kazakhstan – to receive payments in Ukraine because even electronic payments were blocked. I am sorry that many Kazakhs had to fly to Ukraine to receive payments, but this was the only acceptable option at the time”, – the author of the project commented on the situation.

Indeed, on the project’s website, after the opening case and “B2B Jewerly” blocking in Kazakhstan, an official statement was published that the company undertook to pay the promised dividends to all Kazakhs. The only thing is that in connection with the persecution of the leadership and the inability to operate in Kazakhstan, the citizens of Kazakhstan were offered to receive payments in Ukraine, where “B2B Jewerly” branches continue to work.

By the way, many Kazakhs managed to take advantage of this opportunity, and the very fact of such an initiative showed that the company, no matter what happens, fulfills its obligations. Which cannot be said about the Kazakh security forces, for whom ordinary people were garbage and tools for further looting of all project property.

However, the fate of the project in Kazakhstan was sealed. According to a source in the Kazakh media, “B2B Jewerly” became interested in the entourage of President Tokayev himself, who gave a personal order to his people to deal with this business.

(Read more about illegal searches in the material https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R78sVBUemps)

Attacks on shops, very similar to raids by robbers, began in the spring of 2020. And in August 2020, fulfilling the order of the authorities, the Economic investigation department in the city of Almaty announced the cessation of the activities of “B2B Jewelry” in the country, allegedly because of their “danger and risk.”

As a result of such actions of the security forces, thousands of people across the country stopped receiving cashback payments just because the authorities thought that they… could be deceived! However, many “B2B Jewelry” customers disagreed with the authorities’ policy.

“Thousands of people went to the streets, demanded justice, and demanded to leave the business alone,” – said Mykola Gonta about the events. It is significant that the thousands of rallies that took place in Kazakhstan were organized by the Kazakhs themselves. Ordinary people, our employees – all saw and understood perfectly well that the power actually robs our business and steals material values during searches. These are tens of thousands of jewelry rightfully belonging to the Kazakhs! It was just unloaded into cardboard boxes! That’s how the government very quickly destroyed the work of a successful and utterly legal project. But even in such a hopeless situation, the “B2B Jewerly” project fulfilled its obligations, which further irritated some representatives of the Kazakh authorities. “, – Mykola Gonta commented on the mess of the security forces.

As we already mentioned, during 2020, as part of the investigation in the offices of “B2B Jewerly” in different cities of Kazakhstan, police and other security forces conducted hundreds of searches. All the goods and all the cash were taken out of the shops, almost without keeping any records. It was not an investigation but an actual robbery. These funds, which were planned for payments, for the project’s development, the Kazakh authorities, in fact, stole from the company and ordinary people. To this day, the fate of the seized valuables remains unknown.

After all, despite the lively reports on the completion of the investigation, there is no question of any compensation to ordinary Kazakhs. None of the confiscated and seized items in Kazakh offices (as well as in Ukrainian ones) were used to pay for the affected clients. There is a suspicion that all the seized funds and jewelry have gone to fill the pockets of law enforcement and those in power, as there is almost no physical evidence in the case. The real goals of the Kazakh security forces – to “provide protection” to a profitable company and receive regular tribute, secretly confessed to journalists fired for “insufficient rigidity” ex-head of the unit involved in developing a plan to raid the “B2B Jewerly” project!

And the director of the Kazakh branch of “B2B Jewerly” directly told NW about the ultimatum of local security officers “Either you pay us 50% of the profit in cash every month, or we will not let you work, fabricate the case about organizing a financial pyramid, arrest and imprison you”.

On the fair objection that the project does not violate anything, that everything is done openly and legally, all taxes and salaries are paid to ordinary Kazakhs, the authorities did not even want to hear anything. And soon, they began looting, interrogations and detentions.

However, having stolen millions of dollars and valuables, the Kazakh authorities will be obliged to at least present the “guilty” to the people instead of money. And even better – a few of them, so that the anger of ordinary people was directed not at the government but at those accused of allegedly creating a “financial pyramid”.

Threats and blackmail are our favorite methods

Fulfilling the Fetch! command, the investigation rushed to look for “real perpetrators” who could be fed to the people like sacrificial lambs.

The investigation against “B2B Jewerly” was headed by an experienced cadre of the EIS, the watchdog of the Tokayev-Nazarbayev clan Ruslan Mirov, who had previously successfully pursued people objectionable to the regime. It is interesting that the chief and curator of Mirov, in this case, was his immediate supervisor – the Head of the Economic Investigations Department for the city of Almaty, Altynbaev Ali Sapargalievich. In May 2021, Tokayev called on Altynbayev for the post of Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan. I wonder if such a curious increase is related to the disappearance of 5 million US dollars belonging to “B2B Jewerly”? It is very similar to the high recognition of merit in the enrichment of the presidential clan!

As for investigator R. B. Mirov, it is important to note that he had extensive experience in persecuting dissidents and fabricating cases against the Kazakh opposition. In particular, the portal of Radio Liberty (Radio Azattyk) in Kazakhstan told how in 2014, the Kazakh opposition leader Marat Zhanuzakov was found guilty in a reanimated criminal case that had long been closed.

More – https://rus.azattyq.org/a/delo-marata-zhanuzakova/25374910.html

The chief investigator for this case, Ruslan Mirov, was a Senior lieutenant at that time who, according to opposition sources, used various prohibited methods, including psychological pressure, threats and blackmail. As a result of a fabricated case, the accused became unable to travel abroad, and his future fate is unenviable!

The fact that the “B2B Jewerly” case has a clear political color is also confirmed by the lawyers of the Ukrainian detained in Kazakhstan. On August 30, 2020, the media reported the arrest of one “criminal” – a foreign citizen. According to NW, this is a Ukrainian citizen who acted as a business development consultant in Kazakhstan.

It is significant that the investigation did not interrogate any of the officers or officials who took part in the searches of warehouses and the removal of valuables from “B2B Jewerly” stores in Kazakhstan.

But the Ukrainian employees of “B2B Jewerly” found themselves in a very vulnerable position, and risked being imprisoned for a long time in the dungeons of the Kazakh special services. The company’s local employees were also very severely intimidated and threatened with real terms if they did not start “cooperating” and slandering the management. So the Kazakh workers of the project were rudely demanded to testify against the Ukrainian partners. In particular, against the founder of the project Mykola Gonta and his son Alexander. Apparently, in this way, the authorities of Kazakhstan thought to put pressure on the founder of the project, to force him to comply with all their demands and give even more funds. Well, methods worthy of the KGB and the FSB. NW has hidden camera footage where a Kazakh investigator threatens a “B2B Jewerly” client to write a statement and slander the company’s management. Otherwise, the woman is promised to be imprisoned for ten years!

In general, wholly unacceptable and shameful things are happening in the law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan. Human rights activists have repeatedly reported to international organizations that local officials go to any human rights violations just for profit or promotion! Private business is particularly affected.

Even local publications note the terrible level of corruption in the Kazakh authorities. The Kazakh edition of Azattyq Rýhy writes about the dominance of raiding under the guise of the authorities. The article lists only a small part of the successful enterprises that have become the targets of illegal takeovers over the past few years.

Not a single company can function normally there without the approval or protection of the Tokayev-Nazarbayev presidential clan. The Kazakh deputy Vasily Oleynik dared to speak about this problem. During a meeting of the Mezhilis in October 2020, he reported on the mass complaints of Kazakh entrepreneurs about the illegal actions of law enforcement agencies, in particular, searches and seizures of property. He demanded to strengthen the responsibility of officials for undermining the business, Turantimes.kz reports.

(More about it https://turantimes.kz/obschestvo/20536-biznesmeny-pozhalovalis-na-nezakonnye-dejstvija-pravoohranitelnyh-organov.html )

Who is to blame for this mess?

However, there are no real steps to eliminate corruption in Kazakhstan. As the situation with “B2B Jewelry” showed.

After all, the people have not received any intelligible answer about who and why has stolen their valuables. But it didn’t work out to blame everything on the management – people saw everything and understood who was behind the robbery of stores.

As it has repeatedly happened, most likely, the Kazakh authorities, at the behest of the ruling Tokaev-Nazarbayev clan, will want to deal with the accused – a citizen of Ukraine, who is now detained and awaiting sentencing. To cover up the theft of valuables, they plan to put all the blame on him. As they already did with the senior investigator in the case, R. Mirov, who, according to our information, was banned from working with this investigation. Did not give a result – did not catch the management of “B2B Jewerly”! These are old, proven methods of the Soviet school of the KGB, and the corrupt authorities of Kazakhstan successfully adopted them. And the security forces close to the authorities, who plundered funds and cash from the “B2B Jewerly” project, will remain heroes and upgrade their posts. And once again, they will wipe out their feet on thousands of their fellow citizens.

During the preparation of the material, it became known that the Kazakh authorities opened a criminal case against Mykola Gonta and his son Alexander Gonta. Surely, there will be attempts to put them on the wanted list, including international authorities. This is not surprising because, in this way, corrupt officials will try to justify their incompetence and hide the results of the robbery of the enterprise and theft of money.

Experts believe that the Kazakh side will make every effort to arrest and take someone from the family of Mykola Gonta hostage to get an opportunity for any confessions and further demands for bribes for themselves. It seems that today any successful entrepreneur in Kazakhstan, even a citizen of another state, can become a banal victim of state raiding. The editors will follow developments.

Svitlana Boychuk, Sergii Fomenko, based on materials from the media, open and own sources for NEWSWEEK

The publication of the English version of this material is organized at the request of our partners from the USA and Britain. The original article here (nw.com.ua/news/bespredel-v-kazahstane-kak-gosudarstvo-boretsya-s-uspeshnymy-kompanyyamy-ustrayvaya-grabezhy-y-ugrozhaya-lyudyam-raspravoj/).

Публикация англоязычной версии данного материала организована по просьбе наших партнеров из США и Британии. Оригинал статьи здесь – nw.com.ua/news/bespredel-v-kazahstane-kak-gosudarstvo-boretsya-s-uspeshnymy-kompanyyamy-ustrayvaya-grabezhy-y-ugrozhaya-lyudyam-raspravoj/