An investigation into a group of people who created conditions for the operation of illegal online casinos in Astana has been completed, the Financial Monitoring Agency reports. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The illegal activity was conducted through the websites "Nomadgames", "Sultangames" and their clone sites.
To accept money from players, a multi-stage payment system was used, including payment organizations, bank acquiring, POS and internet terminals, electronic wallets and cryptocurrency tools.
"Representatives of the banking sector also participated in this case. They connected to the payment infrastructure and concluded contracts without mandatory verification. They issued appropriate MCC codes to internet terminals. To conceal the true purpose of money operations, they were presented as conducted within the framework of legal bookmaking and other entrepreneurial activities," the agency says.
Thus, more than 188 billion tenge was circulated through electronic terminals. To legalize criminally obtained income, a limited liability partnership controlled by the criminal group was used. Based on a fake contract, 10 billion tenge was transferred to the company's accounts. Later, these funds were exchanged for cryptocurrency and sent to the suspects' crypto wallets. During the investigation, the movement of digital assets totaling 19 million USDT was identified.
"With court sanction, three apartments, six cars, as well as crypto assets and money in bank accounts totaling 1.4 billion tenge were seized. Two suspects were taken into custody, and another three were placed under bail. The remaining two suspects signed a recognizance not to leave and to maintain proper conduct," the agency says.
The criminal case has been sent to court.