CRIMINAL LAW ISSUES OF THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC CRIMES ON THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

G.Y. Aduova; K.R. Sartayeva; K.A. Utarov; E.N. Urakbayeva; A.K. Kanseitova

doi:10.26577/JAPJ200206826

Authors

G.Y. Aduova Al-Farabi Kazakh National University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8954-4781 (unauthenticated)
K.R. Sartayeva M.Auezov South Kazakhstan University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3517-8613 (unauthenticated)
K.A. Utarov M.Auezov South Kazakhstan State University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4285-9257 (unauthenticated)
E.N. Urakbayeva Central Asian Innovation University
A.K. Kanseitova Central Asian University https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7347-8121 (unauthenticated)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26577/JAPJ200206826

Abstract

The article addresses the criminal-law dimension of the relationship between economic crime and the investment climate of the Republic of Kazakhstan – a question that has become especially acute amid the country's ongoing reform of criminal liability for economic offences. The purpose of the study is to reveal the criminal-law content of this relationship and to identify the deficiencies of the current legislation that affect investor confidence. The work proceeds from the hypothesis that economic crime undermines investment attractiveness not directly but through the quality of the criminal-law regime, since both insufficient and excessive, indeterminate criminalisation of economic activity equally increase the risk perceived by investors.

The research relies on the formal-legal, comparative-legal, statistical and systemic-structural methods and draws on Chapter 8 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, official statistics, international indices and reports, and a body of foreign scholarship. The study establishes the channels through which the legalisation of criminal proceeds, fraudulent and pseudo-entrepreneurial schemes, investment pyramids, tax and customs offences and abuses of bankruptcy erode the investment climate, and assesses the 2023–2025 decriminalisation reform as to its protective potential and attendant risks. The scientific value of the work lies in shifting the analysis from the econometric measurement of corruption indices, which dominates the existing literature, to a criminal-law examination of the instruments themselves in the context of a post-Soviet resource economy.

The practical significance consists in a set of proposals for a calibrated criminal-law policy capable of reducing unjustified pressure on bona fide business while strengthening counteraction to genuinely dangerous economic crime.

Keywords: economic crime, investment climate, criminal-law policy, Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, decriminalisation.

Author Biographies

G.Y. Aduova, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

Doctoral Student, al-Farabi Kazakh National University
K.R. Sartayeva, M.Auezov South Kazakhstan University

Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor, M. Auezov South Kazakhstan University
K.A. Utarov, M.Auezov South Kazakhstan State University

Candidate of Legal Sciences, Acting Associate Professor, M. Auezov South Kazakhstan University
E.N. Urakbayeva, Central Asian Innovation University

Central Asian Innovation University
A.K. Kanseitova, Central Asian University

Central Asian Innovation University