A major corruption case has rocked Kostanay, Kazakhstan, where a court sentenced 30 people for embezzling 2.5 billion tenge in state subsidies intended for the meat industry.

The largest sentence - 14 years in prison - was handed to Alexander Parkhomenko, director of Beef Export Group, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

The fraud scheme operated from December 2021 to June 2023, targeting government subsidies meant to support livestock farming and meat processing. Investigators found the funds were misappropriated at multiple levels through three main schemes:

Fake construction subsidies: Nearly 1.2 billion tenge was stolen through falsified documents for building a meat processing plant. The facility did not meet the required capacity of processing 1,500 cattle per day, but paperwork was manipulated to secure funding.

Farmer subsidy fraud: More than 354 million tenge was siphoned off through fake compliance, with farmers supplying livestock that did not meet requirements while documents were adjusted to qualify for subsidies.

“Ghost cattle” scheme: Over 1 billion tenge was stolen using fictitious livestock entries. Farmers received small payments per fake animal, while the bulk of funds was taken by the plant.

Several other defendants received prison sentences, including 10 years for another company director, 9 years for the chief accountant, and 7 years for the deputy director, while farm owners were sentenced to between 5 and 10 years. Some defendants received suspended sentences, and a few were released under amnesty. One suspect died before sentencing.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the meat plant and its equipment, along with $1.3 million and over 600 million tenge seized from company accounts. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.