Investigation
The diesel deputy: Daniyar Abdrasulov and the customs fortune
On a customs officer's salary, the deputy chief for the northern crossings has watched his family acquire filling stations, a freight company and property in Almaty and Dubai. Drivers say they know why.
From the Irad Times of 14 April 2022.
Daniyar Abdrasulov has been deputy director of the ISEZ Customs Service since 2013, responsible for the crossings of the north and the Talas North Terminal. His official salary, according to the service's published pay scales, is about 2,100 som a month. In nine years his wife and two of his brothers have come to own a chain of eleven filling stations on the Chu road, a freight company with forty trucks, a house and two apartments in Talas, an apartment in Almaty and another in Dubai.
On the Chu road he is known as “Daniyar-Dizel”.
What the drivers say
The Times spoke to nineteen truck drivers and four former customs officers who worked at the northern crossings between 2014 and 2021. Their accounts agree: fuel, cigarettes and bagged stibnite declared as building stone passed the crossings without inspection when a payment had been made, and the payments, by their account, went up the line to the deputy chief's office. Two former officers said they had been moved to other posts after refusing to wave trucks through.
The Times has seen registration documents for the filling stations and the freight company and the title records for the Talas properties. We have not been able to see records of any payment.
No answer
Mr. Abdrasulov did not respond to questions sent to him at the Customs Service and through his lawyer. The Customs Service said it “does not comment on the private affairs of its officers” and that the northern crossings were “the most closely supervised in the ISEZ”.
The Public Integrity Commission, which has the power to investigate officials, said it had “noted” the report. In eight years the commission has never charged an official above the rank of deputy head of department.
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