“There are very many victims across Kazakhstan. And the activities of this company on the territory of Kazakhstan, which deceives citizens, we believe that state authorities should step in to protect citizens who earned this money. Look, the company’s operations have been suspended, and Turlov’s assets in Ukraine and Russia have been frozen. (…) Look at the money—the damage caused to Kazakhstan’s economy benefits a single individual who withdraws these people’s money,” said Svetlana Oralbaeva, a lawyer from the North Kazakhstan Regional Bar Association representing the victims.
The journalist asked for clarification: “One individual, who is that?”
“Mr. Turlov. Everyone else are just his employees. And in this situation, citizens of Kazakhstan lose money, which is transferred offshore instead of paying taxes to the Republic of Kazakhstan. We don’t know exactly how much profit he personally received. In other words, this is effectively a financial pyramid. Just like Mavrodi,” the lawyer said.
She called on the Kazakh authorities to protect citizens.
“We want our government to pay attention to this issue, to stand up for the citizens. The same applies to the Prosecutor General’s Office—to take measures to return these assets to the Republic of Kazakhstan. Let them work for Kazakhstan rather than for the person who treats people this way,” Oralbaeva said.
The editorial staff of KazTAG, which has published multiple articles on the issue of Freedom’s management deceiving Kazakh citizens, believes that the authorities’ response—or lack thereof—to victims’ complaints will be the clearest indicator of whether the principle of ‘Law and Order,’ regularly declared by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is truly enforced.
Victims have reported that they previously submitted complaints to the Presidential Administration, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, the Financial Monitoring Agency, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to information available to the agency as of mid-March, in August 2024, an internal audit was initiated at JSC “Freedom Finance” concerning Svetovoy V., who held the position of Executive Director. The audit found that Svetovoy had abused his position and clients’ trust, entering into personal financial dealings with clients, and suggested transferring money not to the company’s accounts but to him personally, supposedly for more effective investment.
The funds obtained in this way were not used for investments but for Svetovoy’s personal needs, including debt repayment. The findings noted that these actions were carried out independently by him, without the knowledge of management. Based on the audit results in August 2024, Svetovoy was dismissed for discrediting circumstances. The investigation materials were forwarded to law enforcement agencies for potential criminal prosecution. It later became known that this information may have originated primarily from Freedom Finance itself, possibly to simulate the appearance of an investigation for reporting purposes to regulatory authorities.
On March 17, the editorial staff requested comments from Freedom Finance regarding this matter, but no response has been provided to date.
However, on March 26, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARRFM) reported that, based on complaints from investors about top management’s fraudulent activities, a review of Freedom Finance had been initiated.
Freedom Finance is part of Freedom Holding Corp., whose main shareholder is the Russian-born businessman Timur Turlov. It is noted that the company regularly ignores requests on pressing issues.
On April 3, lawyer Svetlana Oralbaeva reported that the victims in two criminal cases involving Freedom Holding Corp.’s structure include dozens of people. According to the victims, the stolen funds were transferred to Freedom Finance’s top managers.
The lawyer believes that the fraud at Freedom could not have been carried out without Turlov’s knowledge. The victims also accused Freedom’s top management of a scheme to transfer money offshore and of creating a financial pyramid. Furthermore, it was revealed that one of Freedom Finance’s investors, Vitaly Svetovoy, lost his money and committed suicide in Petropavlovsk. Svetovoy has been in custody since January 23. Another Freedom Finance top manager, Temirlan Bekov, head of investor and staff training in Uzbekistan, has also become a criminal case defendant; his case is under the Department of Economic Investigations (DER) in Astana. At the same time, the victims of criminal cases against Freedom top managers expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the investigations.