Organizers of illegal billion-tenge crypto business convicted in Kazakhstan

Tengrinews.kz — Organizers of an illegal cryptocurrency exchange operation have been convicted in Kyzylorda Region, according to the Financial Monitoring Agency.
How the scheme worked
Investigators found that the convicted individuals illegally traded cryptocurrency through Binance’s P2P platform outside the trading venues of the Astana International Financial Centre and without the required authorization.
“As a result, digital assets worth more than 1 billion tenge were sold, while income from the illegal cryptocurrency exchange amounted to 178 million tenge. In addition, one of the convicted individuals was involved in laundering money obtained from drug sales. Money mules were used to receive and transfer funds through their bank accounts,” the agency said.
The total amount of such transfers exceeded 600 million tenge.

“The funds received were converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to drug dealers’ wallets. The total volume of identified transfers amounted to 277,000 USDT. Using criminal proceeds, the convicted individuals purchased trucks and trailers and registered them in the names of close relatives. The vehicles were later used for commercial purposes and leased to legal entities,” the FMA said.

Court ruling
The court sentenced them to three and two years of restricted freedom. Four pieces of specialized equipment were confiscated in favor of the state, along with criminal proceeds worth more than 1 billion tenge.
The verdict has entered into legal force.