The Almaly District Court of Almaty on July 31 announced a verdict in the criminal case against the heads of the KazTAG news agency. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
General Director Aset Mataev was found guilty of negligent attitude to duties and hooliganism, and editor-in-chief Amir Kasenov of spreading knowingly false information. The proceedings were related to a series of negative publications by the agency about the brokerage company Freedom Finance.
The verdict
Mataev received three years and six months of restriction of liberty with deprivation of the right to engage in journalistic activity for three years. Kasenov was sentenced to one year and three months of restriction of liberty, taking into account the amnesty. He will not be able to engage in journalistic activity for five years. Another defendant, Zhanna Kaparova, was also found guilty, but due to the amnesty, her sentence was reduced to zero. The verdict was announced by Judge Ernar Kassymbekov.
"To recover from the convicted Mataev, Kaparova and Kasenov jointly in favor of the victim Freedom Finance material damage in the amount of 165.4 million tenge. Expenses for the representative's labor in the amount of 36.3 million tenge to be recovered from the convicted Mataev, Kaparova and Kasenov to the state revenue in a shared manner as a state fee in the amount of 4.9 million tenge," the judge said.
The court explained to Mataev and Kasenov that failure to comply with the Medeu court decision to remove articles may lead to criminal liability.
Origin of the conflict
The conflict that brought the leadership of KazTAG to the dock began with unsuccessful investments in the stock market from November 2019 to September 2023. Pensioner Karlygash Kaparova (mother of defendant Zhanna Kaparova) invested large sums ranging from $380,000 to $440,000 through FFIN Brokerage Services. As a result of high-risk transactions, she suffered financial losses and accused her former consultant Temirlan Bekov of embezzlement.
In October 2024, a pre-trial investigation was launched based on Kaparova's statement. However, in the summer of 2025, the Department of Economic Investigations (DEI) of Astana completely terminated this criminal case due to the absence of a crime. The investigation and checks by the financial regulator ARDFR established that the client knowingly and voluntarily gave Bekov the login and password to the account (knowing about his dismissal), herself confirmed loss-making transactions with SMS codes, and agreed to pay him 20% of the profit, which grossly violated the broker's internal regulations.
Pressure on the broker
Having no legal grounds for compensation for market losses, Zhanna Kaparova moved to pressure. Back in 2023, she blackmailed Temirlan Bekov, demanding that he write a fictitious debt note under recording and threatening criminal prosecution and media involvement in case of refusal. In August 2024, at a meeting at ARDFR, Kaparova openly promised representatives of Freedom Finance that she would "act through information networks."
In February 2025, she united with figures from other proceedings, and on April 3, 2025, she arrived at the office of IAA KazTAG, where she entered into a preliminary conspiracy with editor-in-chief Amir Kasenov. According to the state prosecution, Kasenov, acting from selfish motives to increase traffic to his site and the number of subscribers, agreed to organize a defamation campaign against JSC Freedom Finance and its founder Timur Turlov. In total, over a year and a half, the agency published about 250 negative publications, accusing the broker of fraud, money laundering to offshore accounts, and creating a financial pyramid. The peak of the attack came on the evening of April 3, 2025, when KazTAG published 12 false materials in a conveyor manner.
Representatives of Freedom Finance regarded what was happening as information blackmail, since the attack began immediately after the company refused to pay third parties for dubious "out-of-court settlement." The pre-trial claim sent by the broker on April 4, 2025, demanding the removal of lies, was ignored by the editorial office.
Legal proceedings
Attempts to resolve the conflict in the legal field led to two parallel processes. In October 2025, Freedom Finance filed a lawsuit to protect business reputation against IAA KazTAG and lawyer Svetlana Oralbayeva, who acted as a speaker. In February 2026, the Medeu District Court of Almaty fully satisfied the claim. The forensic examination confirmed the targeted and defamatory nature of the materials, and the court ordered the agency to refute the spread lies and remove the articles. However, the editorial office never complied with the court decision.
In parallel, law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation based on the broker's statement. On December 15, 2025, KazTAG General Director Aset Mataev and editor-in-chief Amir Kasenov were recognized as suspects in the criminal case on the distribution of knowingly false information (Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Later, Kasenov was detained and placed in the temporary detention center of Astana. Mataev was charged with negligent attitude to the duties of a manager (Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) in the main episode, since he completely withdrew from control over the publications of his employee.
Incident involving Mataev
The procedural position of KazTAG General Director Aset Mataev, who was under a mild preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave, deteriorated sharply in the spring of 2026. On the night of March 17-18, intoxicated Mataev and his acquaintance near the Dostyk Plaza shopping center in Almaty provoked a conflict with young people in a parked Toyota Camry. The conflict began because of the appearance of one of the guys, Arlan Aiymbetov, who had long hair. The defendants began to insult him, pull the door handles of the rented car, and damaged the inner door panel. When the young people got out of the car, Mataev unexpectedly hit Aiymbetov in the face, provoking a group brawl, during which the guy (who is disabled due to the absence of one kidney) was brutally beaten with his feet.
On March 20, the specialized investigative court of Almaty arrested Mataev for two months on charges of hooliganism (Article 293, Part 2, Item 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Later, the preventive measure was softened to house arrest, and Mataev's defense officially confirmed.