On November 11, 2026, the Almalinsky District Court of Almaty sentenced Ruslan Omarov, former CEO of the First Credit Bureau (FCB), and several former civil servants. As reported by Forbes.kz, the heads of the private company and state agencies were found guilty of corruption and unlawful interference with information systems.
Omarov was sentenced to seven and a half years in a medium-security prison. The court found him guilty of bribery, aiding in the abuse of office, and interfering with telecommunications networks. Daulet Argandykov, former head of the state-owned Center for Human Resources Development (CHRD), received the same seven-and-a-half-year sentence. Former CHRD head Akmadi Sarbasov was sentenced to four years in prison for accepting a bribe. Two other former CHRD employees received two years in prison, factoring in an amnesty.
Omarov and Sarbasov were acquitted on separate counts of abuse of office due to the absence of a criminal offense.
The criminal case centered on the partnership between the state CHRD and the private FCB. Investigators stated that in 2020, the parties revised their revenue-sharing terms for information services. The state center’s share dropped from 75% to 65%, while the private bureau’s share rose from 25% to 35%. Investigators calculated this cost the state center about 2.088 billion tenge in lost revenue between 2021 and 2025. According to case files, a $75,000 bribe was paid to maintain these terms.
A second episode involved technical interference with competition in the credit data market. Prosecutors alleged a mechanism was embedded in the CHRD software to artificially delay processing requests from the State Credit Bureau by one to three seconds. Investigators believe this created a competitive advantage for the FCB.
All five defendants pleaded not guilty. The defense argued the contract change allowed for an expanded list of services and disputed the existence of malicious code.