Kazakh Anti-Corruption Service Detains Senior Official

The officers of the Kazakh National Security Committee's Anti-Corruption Service have detained a senior official from the West Kazakhstan Regional Department of State Revenues and a resident of Astana.

The arrests followed the disruption of an illegal goods import channel across the state border, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

"These individuals, for monetary rewards, assisted foreign nationals in the unhindered import of consumer goods into the country. Procedural evidence documented that they received bribes totaling more than 100 million tenge (almost $196,000)," the National Security Committee said.

Preliminary estimates put the damage to the state at 1.9 billion tenge ($3.7 million). No further details have been released.