A curious development has occurred in Gani Sadibekov case. At the beginning of March, Energy Vice-Minister Gani Sadibekov was arrested and put in the pretrial detention center for two months on suspicion of embezzling a billion tenge. But, suddenly, he was released and is now under house arrest. The insiders say the reason for that lies in his connection to Nazarbayev’s brother.

The staff of the National Bureau of Anti-Corruption Agency arrested Gani Sadibekov on March 2, 2018. He was suspected of embezzling the state funds allocated for clearing the lake in the Schuchinsko-Borovskaya resort.

Practically all the Kazakhstan internet-resources reported on the matter. Here is a quote from the Informburo.kz website.

“Energy Vice-Minister Sadibekov, acting together with Director of the Aymak contractor agency Duanbek D., embezzled particularly large sums of the budget funds allocated for clearing the lake in the Schuchinsko-Borovskaya resort”, says official representative of Anti-Corruption Agency Nurlan Zhakhin.

The criminal scheme also included Head of the Waste Management Department of the Energy Ministry Zhan Nurbekov and subcontractor’s representatives Zhumalinov S. and Kadirberlin B. Based of the fabricated documents signed by Sadibekov, in 2017, the Energy Ministry paid for the erroneously high volumes of completed works in the amount of 3.6 bln tenge. “Out of this amount, they cashed out and embezzled more than 1 bln tenge that was discovered and retrieved during the police search”, says Zhakhin. The embezzlement of another 1.5 bln tenge allocated for clearing the lake in 2018 had been prevented, adds the press-service. A pretrial investigation is being conducted”.

On the next day, March 3, 2018, District Court #2 of the Almatinskiy district in Astana sanctioned Gani Sadibekov’s arrest for the period of two months.

Recently, however, we have received unofficial information that Gani Sadibekov who still retains his position as Energy Vice-Minister (according to the information on the official website of the agency) has been released from the pretrial detention center and placed under house arrest.

Moreover, according to the insiders, it is very likely that he will be completely freed from the criminal sanctions or will get a slip on the wrist by paying a large fee to the state budget for committing a corruption crime.

Note that Gani Sadibekov is close to Kazakhstan Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev. It is clear, for instance, from his work history published on the Zakon.kz website.

“Employment record:

• Deputy Director of the Salkyn-Saz co-op (1992-1994);
• Principal Manager of the Infrastructure Development and Social Sphere Department of Sovetskiy District Administration (1994-1997);
• Principal Manager, Deputy Governor of the Auezovskiy district (1997-2002);
• Deputy Principal Manager of the Department of Industry and Trade of the Almaty city (2002-2004);
• Deputy Principal Manager – Chief State Inspector of the Almaty Municipal Environment Protection Office (2004-2005);
• Principal Manager of the Almaty Municipal Environment Protection Office (2005-2008);
• Deputy Principal Manager of the Balkhash-Alakolsk Ecology Department – Chief State Ecology Inspector in the Almaty city (2008-2009);
• Chief of Administration of Governor of the Zhambyl region (12.2009-12.2010);
• Deputy Governor of the Zhambyl region (12.2010-12.2013);
• Deputy Governor of the Pavlodar region (12.2013-05.2016);
• Energy Vice-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan (03.05.2016-02.2018)”.

According to the insiders, the crucial role in placing Gani Sadibekov under house arrest was played not so much by Kanat Bozumbayev as his own brother Galym Sadibekov who used to be a deputy of the Almaty local representative body and is currently acing as an independent businessman.

According to the insiders, Galym Sadibekov acted through one of the RK Supreme Court members and managed to cut a deal on freeing his brother from the pretrial detention center at the highest level. He also managed to make sure that the criminal case against him will be dropped so he will avoid the responsibility that is now to be placed on the “fall guys”. Or perhaps he would get off by paying a fee, albeit a large one. (Note that such deals in Kazakhstan are never made without paying large sums of money to the persons capable of bringing the desired outcome to life).

The fact that Gani Sadibekov as well as his brother are allegedly close to the scandalously famous entrepreneur Edgar Salduzi was the crucial factor that played to his advantage. Salduzi is known as trusted person and business partner of Bolat Nazarbayev, President Nazarbayev’s brother.

Click here to learn more information: 
https://rus.azattyq.org/a/edgar_salduzi_missing_businessman/2130215.html
https://rus.azattyq.org/a/edgar_salduzi_releasing/2169363.html
https://www.kp.ru/daily/26125/3018056/
http://www.time.kz/news/archive/2012/01/07/pohishenie-s-otstrelom
http://www.compromat.ru/page_36265.htm

The garbage business is the contact point of Salduzi’s and the Sadibekov brothers’ interests. The thing is that Gani Sadibekov, as Energy Deputy Minister, was in charge of the ecology matters including waste collecting and processing. Salduzi, according to the insiders, controls the Tartyp company that removes household waste in Almaty and occupies the dominant position in the sector. Curiously, there is no info on who manages the company and who its shareholders are on the corporate website.

All of this enables us to predict that the resonant story of Gani Sadibekov arrested on suspicion of embezzling the state funds will end for him much more happily than we originally thought.