Ex-Minister of Culture in Kazakhstan receives extended jail sentence due to corruption charges
Informal Take:
Hey there! Let's dive into the sordid tale of Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, the former culture minister of Kazakhstan who's been cracking jokes at the local court. After a pretty eventful couple of years, this fella has been slapped with an 11-year prison sentence for embezzlement and bribery, and can't hold a civil service job for life.
Not a good start for the new year, huh? Along with his wife and lawyer, they all found themselves in a hot seat, receiving prison terms ranging from six months to seven years.
Mukhamediuly got into a world of trouble. The Astana court handled the case on February 13 and found him guilty for swindling 221 million tenge ($490,000) from the Kazakh government for a cultural exhibition in India back in 2020. He claimed innocence, but after some extra cases popped up, it seemed like he had a lot to hide.
Accusations include illegally privatizing a state-owned sports school and fraudulently snatching the Diplomat Hotel in Astana from its rightful owner. They say he forged documents and pulled a sketchy loan to get his hands on the hotel.
What's more, investigators claimed that Mukhamediuly tried to bribe government officials to ease his legal troubles. In December 2022, while in a detention center, he reportedly attempted to bribe officials in hopes of getting out and keeping the Diplomat hotel. This story gets even more twisted, yo. He wanted his wife as an intermediary!
His wife, Galiya Iskakova, was found guilty of mediating in bribery, while their lawyer, Mustakhim Tuleyev, was found guilty of fraud on an especially large scale. He apparently pocketed the bribe money for himself.
Mukhamediuly has a knack for getting himself into scandals. In 2016, he sued a film director for libel and won. Later that year, a former student accused him of sexual harassment. The incident wasn't officially investigated.
It's said that he enjoyed the patronage of the team around former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who kept a strong grip on the country even after resigning. But after a wave of political unrest, many former president's associates, like Mukhamediuly, started to lose their golden status. Keep an eye on this one, fam!
- Despite his past involvement in Kazakhstan's cultural sector, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly's business dealings have found him embroiled in crime-and-justice issues, such as embezzlement, bribery, and even attempts to bribe government officials.
- The general-news landscape in Kazakhstan has been dominated by the downfall of one of its former ministers, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, who was found guilty of embezzling funds for a cultural exhibition and illegally privatizing a sports school, as well as committing fraud in the Diplomat Hotel case.
- The influence of politics in Kazakhstan's sports, culture, and business sectors is evident through the controversial actions of former culture minister Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, who was associated with the former President Nursultan Nazarbayev's team and faced punishment for his crimes, which also involved sports schools and news-worthy instances like bribery and fraud.
