In 2003, a special economic zone “Park of Information Technologies Alatau” (hereinafter – PIT Alatau) was created near Almaty. In 2017, former President Nursultan Nazarbayev called the project “our Silicon Valley,” but at the same time admitted that “huge amounts of money have been spent on it, and then it’s still not clear what they are doing.” For almost 20 years of its existence, PIT Alatau has not become an analogue of the American silicon valley. At the same time, in at least one case, during its construction, people close to the family of the former president benefited. The results of their work have become a reason for litigation, and the problems have not been resolved so far.
As the newspaper “Business Kazakhstan” wrote, in June 2005 the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a document according to which the construction of the Alatau PIT was to consist of four stages.
The final work was supposed to look like on the layout that officials present to Nursultan Nazarbayev.
In 2006, the construction of the 1st phase of the technopark was completed, which occupied 14 hectares of land. In the park appeared industrial premises and administrative, roads and communications were summed up. According to the master plan, by September 2016 the territory of the park was to increase 10 times.
“Colleges and city enterprises will move here, new production facilities will also be opened and a data center will be built,” — promised in 2012 by Meruert IsabekovaDeputy Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Industry of the Almaty Akimat.
The satellite image of google earth (the image was taken in November 2022) shows that since 2006 the territory of the technopark has not increased. A huge plot of land – on which, according to the original layout, new buildings and structures should be built – is empty.
Pipeline and sewerage
In order to provide PIT Alatau with the necessary engineering infrastructure, external water supply and sewerage networks began to be pulled to the park. 4.72 billion tenge was allocated from the budget for their construction.
By order of the Akimat of Almaty, the construction work was entrusted to Aria Zhana Astana LLP. In December 2016, the Almaty Akimat accepted the infrastructure by signing the act of state acceptance of the facility.
In February 2022, a specialist of the communal city enterprise “Almaty Su” Serik Shagirov reportedthat the external engineering networks of the PIT Alatau are not functioning. On December 7, Aidyn Sylbyrbaev, head of the Department of Energy and Water Supply of the city of Almaty, confirmed in a conversation with the author of the article that the networks were not working, adding that “a criminal case is underway against them.”
Back in September, the author sent a journalistic request to the General Director of Technopark Alatau LLP Olzhas Sartaev with a request to let him enter the territory of the Alatau PIT in order to find out on the spot how the external engineering networks of the technopark function. The request remained unanswered.
And in October 2022, the Almaty Energy and Water Supply Department reported that utilities were still not working due to defects made during construction. Back in January 2020, the Almaty Akimat filed a lawsuit against the Aria Zhana Astana contractor with a demand to force the contractor to eliminate the violations. According to the akimat, the contractor performed the installation work poorly.
In May 2020, the Specialized Interdistrict Economic Court of Almaty dismissed the akimat’s claim, citing the fact that the akimat did not specify and specify the type, name and scope of defective work.
In court, Aria Zhana Astana indicated that the akimat had to file claims within 30 days from the day it became aware of the violations by the contractor.
“The object was accepted by the customer on December 15, 2016. The warranty period for the work performed, according to the terms of the contract, is 12 months after the signing of the act of work performed, while during the specified period the customer did not file a claim for the quality of work. For the last three years, the facility has been unguarded in an ownerless state,” the contractor answered the claim of the akimat in court.
According to the court decision, Aria Zhana Astana is not obliged to eliminate violations in the construction of engineering networks. The circle is closed on this.
Who owns Aria Zhana Astana?
Aria Zhana Astana LLP over the past six years has concluded contracts with the state in the amount of 26 billion tenge. For the Universiade 2017, this company built the Khalyk Arena ice palace with an area of 67 thousand square meters. meters.
Until 2018, Aria Zhana Astana was part of the BAUR Kazakhstan JSC group of companies. The joint stock company was established by businessman Abai Kadirovich Zhunusov in 2011.
In April of this year, the Anti-Corruption Agency reported that employees of the Almaty Akimat, the management of Ariya-Zhana Astana LLP and Gulmira Satybaldy were charged with embezzlement of budget money on an especially large scale for failure to carry out construction and installation work for the facilities of the Universiade-2017.
It also became known that Gulmira Satybaldy, along with officials from the Akimat of Shymkent and the management of the Aria-Zhana Astana company, are suspected of embezzling 747 million tenge in 2021, paid, according to the investigation, for actually not completed construction and installation work.
Useful business links
Abay Zhunusov is married to Raya Kauaskyzy Primbetova, one of several sisters of Gulmira Satybalda. Gulmira Satybaldy is the ex-wife of Kairat Satybaldy, ex-KNB officer and nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The family ties of Abai Zhunusov’s wife with Gulmira Satybaldy are recorded in the document on the affiliation of JSC MAG. The document was published on December 5, 2008 on the website of the Kazakhstan stock exchange Kase.kz. JSC MAG together with Aria Zhana Astana were part of the BAUR Kazakhstan group of companies.
These ties later took various “financial-economic forms”. For example, in 2013, Kairat Satybaldy issued 173 million tenge as a loan to BAUR Kazakhstan at zero interest.
In 2016, BAUR Kazakhstan received from the Akimat of Almaty the state enterprise “Holding Almaty Zhylu” for 2 years with a subsequent right of redemption. It is a communal monopolist providing heat to the largest city in Kazakhstan. The redemption of the state-owned enterprise did not happen two years later – it is still in communal ownership.
In May 2018, Zhunusov sold Aria Zhana Astana to his employee Bakyt Amanzholovich Kabenov for 4.75 billion tenge. This is stated in the audit reports of JSC BAUR Kazakhstan for 2018. […]
OCCRP, 12/13/2022, “Vlast.kz: Company controlled by Nazarbayev’s relatives received 4.7 billion tenge for a pipeline that is not working”: According to the audit reports of BAUR Kazakhstan JSC, in May 2018, Zhunusov sold Aria Zhana Astana to an employee of the company Bakyt Kabenov for 4.75 billion tenge (over $10 million), and in July 2019 it passed to Gulmira Satybalda’s assistant Igor Rodionov. — Inset K.ru
What happened to Abai Zhunusov’s Baur?
In July 2021, an eight-minute videoin which the former owner of Aria Zhana Astana, Abai Zhunusov, claims that Gulmira Satybaldy forced him to rewrite the entire business in the name of her assistant from Astana, Igor Rodionov.
Zhunusov was forced to do so because, according to him, from February to August 2019 he was illegally kept at home by Gulmira Satybalda’s assistants. His phone was taken from him, and several men controlled his actions and accompanied him everywhere. Abay Zhunusov said that he spent 165 days in captivity until he managed to escape, taking advantage of the oversight of the “curators”.
In response to Zhunusov’s statements about his abduction, Gulmira Satybaldy filed a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity. She demanded to oblige the businessman to refute the information voiced in the video.
In January 2022, the Almaty District Court of Astana sided with Gulmira Satybaldy, ruling that the information voiced by Zhunusov was untrue and discredited the honor, dignity and business reputation of the plaintiff. The court also ordered the businessman to refute the information voiced in the video. In June, the Almaty District Court of Astana denied Abay Zhunusov a review of the case.
Detention of Gulmira Satybaldy
In March of this year, Gulmira Satybaldy was detained and placed in a temporary detention center on the fact of a raider seizure of a business. In September, the anti-coronavirus reported that Gulmira Satybalda and her proxies were being investigated for the facts of illegal appropriation of shares and assets of a number of enterprises, kidnapping and illegal imprisonment.
In September 2022 anti-corruption agency saidthat “Aria Zhana Astana” caused damage to the state for 3.9 billion tenge, not completing construction and installation work on several objects.
Litigation in cases against Gulmira Satybaldy has not yet begun.
