In Kostanay, a criminal case against a Russian citizen involved in cryptocurrency trading has been reviewed. The court found that from July 2020 to June 2022, the defendant in Tobol was engaged in the "circulation of unsecured digital assets."
Through a website, the defendant conducted the buying and selling of Bitcoin for the national currency tenge, generating income exceeding 357 million tenge, on a particularly large scale, according to a statement from Kostanay Court No. 2.
During the trial, the prosecutor requested a sentence of two years and six months of imprisonment, with the serving of the sentence in a minimum security facility, a 10-year prohibition on engaging in activities related to the circulation of unsecured digital assets and non-cash foreign currency, property confiscation, and satisfaction of the state's civil claim.
The defendant denied guilt and the civil claim. Considering the individual's personality, the nature and degree of public danger of the offense, and all circumstances of the case, the court imposed a sentence of two years of restricted freedom, a two-year prohibition on engaging in activities related to the issuance and circulation of digital assets, digital mining, and property confiscation.
The state's right to satisfy the civil claim and the determination of its amounts were also acknowledged, to be reviewed by the court in accordance with civil proceedings. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
A similar case was reported in March 2024, where a resident of Astana earned nearly 400 million tenge from cryptocurrency exchange and received a real sentence for it.
