The Financial Monitoring Agency detained Mikhail Kozachkov, the agency's press service reports . He is suspected of complicity with the organized criminal group of Yeldos Kospaev in the commission of hostile takeovers.
According to the department, Kospaev's organized criminal group used "the services of Kozachkov to carry out information attacks on the victims of raider seizures," realizing that such attacks could cause "negative public outcry and this could frustrate their criminal plans."
“In turn, Kozachkov attracted his friend Zhanseitov Burkhan, who had many years of experience in law enforcement agencies, to assist the organized criminal group for a generous reward. The latter, through his connections, collected incriminating information for the needs of the organized crime group, including for subsequent publication,” the report says. The AFM claims that the journalist and his friend received 52 million tenge from active members of the organized criminal group.
Mikhail Kozachkov is one of the most famous Kazakh investigative journalists, an employee of the Vremya newspaper and the author of the Kozachkov offside Telegram channel, which has more than 90,000 subscribers. Earlier, Kozachkov reported that he was being followed. Unknown people also damaged his car in July with offensive inscriptions. The journalist associated the act of vandalism with the publication of a video of the wedding of Nurlan Amanbek, the son of the head of the administrative police of Almaty, Vlast reports .
The International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech "Adil Soz" expressed concern about the violation of procedural norms in the case of Mikhail Kozachkov and is ready to provide assistance to the journalist. The Foundation is also concerned about the growing pressure on investigative journalism in the country.
Several members of Yeldos Kospaev's organized crime group were detained this summer, he himself and several other people were put on the wanted list. Last week, the AFM reported on the arrest of one and a half hundred apartments belonging to members of the organized criminal group, the discovery of cash and jewelry.
The KazTAG agency wrote that Yeldos Kospaev was connected with the younger brother of the former president of Kazakhstan, Bolat Nazarbayev.