Yesterday, June 22, the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan announced the extradition from Kyrgyzstan of the leader of an organized crime group who had been hiding in the capital of Kyrgyzstan for 17 years. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
By comparing known information with open data, Kursiv established a probable connection to the high-profile case of embezzlement at Halyk Bank JSC. According to the investigation, in 2007-2008, the man organized a criminal group in Almaty and developed a scheme for issuing knowingly non-repayable loans. Over 183 million tenge was stolen from one of Kazakhstan's banks. The money was distributed among members of the organized crime group and spent on personal needs.
"After the crime was committed, some members of the organized crime group were convicted, and the offender fled from the criminal prosecution authority, which led to his being placed on the international wanted list," the Prosecutor General's Office reported.
According to colleagues from zonakz.net, exactly 17 years ago — in 2009, Kazakh law enforcement agencies reported the suppression of the activities of an organized crime group led by a certain Leontyev and Beshinkenov, which stole money from Halyk Bank JSC using forged identity documents and fake title documents for real estate. "The bank suffered damage in the amount of $1.5 million. In addition, 5 groups engaged in cashing out funds were identified, causing damage to the state of more than 12 billion tenge," journalists wrote at the time.
However, who exactly was extradited from Bishkek is unclear unless one looks into the register of wanted criminals. It lists Leontyev Sergey Vasilyevich, born in 1971, a citizen of Kazakhstan. The search case was registered on February 16, 2015 in Almaty, initiated by the APC. At the time of publication, he had been wanted for 4,145 days. There is no information about the second leader of the organized crime group in the database of wanted persons. He was likely convicted along with the other gang members in 2009.
Kursiv will send a request to the Prosecutor General's Office asking to confirm or deny the connection between these cases. Most likely, Leontyev was found in Bishkek in February 2026. After extradition to Kazakhstan, he was placed in a pre-trial detention center. He faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.