Illegally withdrawn assets amounting to $824.4 million recuperated by Kazakhstan in the year 2024
In 2024, Kazakhstan embarked on a comprehensive reform agenda, focusing on asset recovery, social projects, environmental concerns, and crime prevention. This broad-ranging approach was a response to the unrest experienced in 2022.
Regarding asset recovery, Kazakhstan launched a significant campaign in 2023 to repatriate illegally acquired assets by corrupt officials. By mid-2025, the total assets returned exceeded 1.2 trillion tenge (~$2.3 billion). This effort was institutionalized by a law signed in July 2023 and supported by new entities like the Returned Asset Management Company and the Asset Recovery Committee under the Prosecutor General’s Office.
In the sphere of social and economic development, Kazakhstan's banking sector, exemplified by ForteBank’s performance in 2024 and early 2025, contributed robustly to broader economic goals through diversified lending and digital innovations, supporting manufacturing, infrastructure, retail, and services sectors that underpin social welfare enhancement.
Kazakhstan's policy reforms also attracted record foreign direct investment (FDI) in early 2025, with a 6.2% increase year-over-year to $6.6 billion despite global slowdown. This surge reflects a strategic shift from traditional resource industries to sectors like information and communication, financial services, and manufacturing.
While explicit details on environmental concerns and crime rates evolution during 2024 are not highlighted in the sources, the integrated approach to asset recovery and reform—aimed at eliminating systemic corruption and promoting justice—suggests parallel efforts in governance that indirectly impact crime reduction and institutional accountability.
In terms of social projects, 15 social and investment projects worth more than 48 billion tenge ($92.3 million) were launched. Support was provided to 565 investors, whose contribution to the economy reached ten trillion tenge ($19.2 billion). Additionally, 4.6 billion tenge (~$8.8 million) in alimony was collected for 23,000 children.
On the environmental front, Kazakhstan recovered 428.7 billion tenge (US$824.4 million) in assets illegally withdrawn in 2024. The country also introduced judicial proceedings to recover unexplained assets, securing $10 million through court decisions.
In the realm of human rights, the overall crime rate in Kazakhstan dropped by 5.3% in 2024, from 140,000 to 132,000 offenses. Incidents of torture in Kazakhstan were halved in 2024, decreasing by 54%, from 424 to 194 cases. Furthermore, constitutional rights of 3.5 million citizens were protected.
International cooperation on crime prevention and asset recovery was also strengthened in 2024, as Kazakhstan signed nine treaties with Morocco (3), Peru (3), Qatar (2), and Cyprus (1). Work on the extradition of persons abroad was intensified, with 67 people returning to Kazakhstan in 2024, including 37 from Russia, six from Georgia, and four from the Kyrgyz Republic.
In summary, Kazakhstan’s 2024 efforts focused on institutionalizing asset recovery mechanisms yielding substantial returns, blending social-economic projects with economic diversification, and reinforcing anti-corruption legal frameworks, which collectively underpin improvements in social justice and likely impact crime and environmental governance indirectly.
- The asset recovery initiatives in Kazakhstan, primarily focusing on repatriating illegally acquired assets, have drawn attention from the finance and industry sectors, as a law signed in 2023 institutionalized these efforts and attracted support from new entities like the Returned Asset Management Company.
- The robust performance of Kazakhstan's banking sector, as shown by ForteBank's endeavors in 2024, has not only been a significant contributor to the economy but has also influenced the political landscape by supporting sectors integral to social welfare enhancement and contributing to the diversification of the business sector.
