A courier from Kokshetau was sentenced to 3 years in prison for transporting gold bars, claiming he was unaware of their contents. However, the cassation court did not accept ignorance as a defense. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The court established that from 2021 to 2023, businessman T. illegally purchased pure gold, manufactured jewelry from it, and sold it to customers. The income from illegal activities exceeded 224 million tenge.
B., who worked for entrepreneur T., organized the shipment of a package containing gold bars with a total weight of nearly 744 grams to Shymkent on T.'s orders.
However, the illegal scheme was uncovered. The court of first instance found the businessman guilty of illegal trafficking of precious metals, illegal entrepreneurship with particularly large income, and money laundering.
As a result, entrepreneur T. was sentenced to 4 years in prison with confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the circulation of precious metals for 5 years.
Meanwhile, courier B. was sentenced to 3 years in prison for illegal transportation of precious metals on a particularly large scale.
The defense requested the annulment of the court decisions. T.'s lawyer argued that the business was conducted legally and the income was the result of intermediary activities. B.'s lawyer cited that his client did not know the contents of the transported package.
However, the Cassation Court found that the guilt of the convicted persons was fully proven.
"No violations of criminal or criminal procedural law that would entail the annulment or modification of the court decisions were found. The imposed punishment was deemed lawful and fair, and therefore the court decisions were left unchanged," the court concluded.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that a courier for phone scammers received 4 years in prison.