The Department of State Revenue for the Mangystau region informs that cases of deliberate bankruptcy have recently become more frequent, when companies, failing to meet their obligations or intentionally evading their fulfillment, are declared bankrupt through the courts. However, such actions do not go unpunished today.

The concept of intentional bankruptcy is enshrined in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy", according to which it refers to intentional actions by the founder or an official, as well as an individual entrepreneur, aimed at evading obligations to creditors, committed by alienation or concealment of property.

Signs of deliberate bankruptcy may include the conclusion of deliberately unprofitable or fictitious transactions, withdrawal of assets, refusal to collect debts, concealment and transfer of property, fictitious increase in debt, deliberate destruction of the management and accounting system, and other illegal actions.

The legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, namely the above-mentioned Law, the Code of Administrative Offences and the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan provide for the personal responsibility of founders and officials.

If it is established that the bankruptcy was intentional, then the controlling person may be brought to subsidiary responsibility in court, that is, the company's debts will have to be paid out of its own funds.

In addition, subsidiary liability is possible even after the bankruptcy procedure is completed, if the guilty person is found guilty as a result of an administrative or criminal investigation.

According to the information of the State Revenue Committee for 2024-2025, 120 administrative proceedings and more than 44 criminal cases on grounds of deliberate bankruptcy of companies were initiated based on the results of an analysis of the country's activities of all debtors in bankruptcy proceedings.

Now the state revenue authorities plan to use automated tools to identify signs of deliberate bankruptcy, analyze transactions, relationships between companies and the behavior of debtors, for which active work has begun on automating rehabilitation and bankruptcy procedures.

For example, the former director of a company in the Zhambyl region was found guilty of deliberate bankruptcy in 2024 by a court verdict, and in 2025 the court recovered more than 45 million tenge from this person in favor of creditors for withdrawn assets in the form of funds from bank accounts before declaring the company bankrupt.

These cases are not isolated, in 2025 alone, more than 12 such court decisions were made against guilty persons in the country, and taking into account the introduction of automated processes for detecting illegal actions of debtors, state revenue authorities expect an increase in the effectiveness of materials sent to law enforcement agencies due to analytical validity and a systematic evidence base, respectively, an increase in the number of lawsuits sent to court..

Thus, the bankruptcy procedure ceases to be a way of evading responsibility for unscrupulous entrepreneurs and becomes an effective tool for restoring justice — a mechanism aimed at maximizing satisfaction of creditors' claims by bringing perpetrators to personal responsibility. The statute of limitations can be extended, and financial and criminal liability is real.

(unofficial translation)

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/kgd-mangistau/press/news/details/1145266?lang=kk