Information overheating: how publications about Freedom Finance became the subject of proceedings

In 2025, Freedom Finance faced what some experts and the company itself call a customized information attack. During the year, the Kazakh media outlet KazTAG wrote more than 150 articles with loud headlines and accusations against Freedom, which often did not reflect the meaning of the publication itself and did not have evidence attached to the text. Freedom Finance commented on the situation several times, and also, according to the company's statements, contacted the editorial office. However, after refusing to make contact, Freedom Finance's lawyers sued KazTAG's management for spreading deliberately false information. The publication, fearing criminal punishment, began to claim alleged pressure from the company and even torture, both of which were denied by government agencies. Izvestia investigated whether working out the agenda and unwillingness to take responsibility for their words could be under the guise of independent journalism.

Freedom Finance vs. KazTAG

In April 2025, KazTAG published 12 articles within two days, the headlines of which contained accusations against Freedom founder Timur Turlov of withdrawing money offshore, creating a pyramid scheme, and so on. Freedom Finance responded with a statement stating that the high-profile accusations were not true. At the same time, Freedom did not raise any complaints from regulators in connection with the publications, neither in Kazakhstan nor in other jurisdictions where the company is present. At the same time, Freedom Finance stated that shortly before the massive information attack, some people came to the company and tried to blackmail the management. At the same time, the editorial board of KazTAG began to be suspected of so—called "agenda working", a journalistic practice where the media systematically focuses on issues promoted by the editorial board itself or an external customer when choosing topics and ways to present them.

In the autumn of the same year, it became known that several cases had been opened in Kazakhstan against the editorial office of KazTAG, namely editor—in-chief Amir Kasenov and media owner Asset Matayev. According to Freedom's lawyers, Matayev and Kasenov did not attend the civil case against KazTAG. The company also tried to settle the case in the process of open communication, demanding to explain and "refute the information that is false," but the editor-in-chief of KazTAG refused, continuing to post questionable materials that often do not correspond to reality.

As part of the investigation of the criminal case under Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Dissemination of deliberately false information", Amir Kasenov was interrogated, then detained, and then sent under house arrest. Immediately after the interrogation, Kasenov stated that the investigator was "hanging over" him, and called it torture, but the police denied these words. The head of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aida Balayeva, also reacted to the loud statement about torture. She called it an attempt to mislead Kazakhstanis, as well as foreign organizations monitoring the situation. The Minister of Culture called on the media to handle information responsibly.

— Freedom of speech does not mean exemption from responsibility and cannot replace the requirements of the law, either in our country or in any other state governed by the rule of law. Attempts to present the procedural actions as "pressure on freedom of speech" are deliberate manipulation of public opinion. The perpetrators will inevitably be punished in proportion to their deeds if it is proven in court," Balayeva wrote on Facebook (owned by Meta, the organization is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).

The police also denied Kasenov's statements and reminded them of their responsibility for false accusations.

— The arguments of the editor-in-chief of KazTAG about the use of illegal investigative methods, including torture, are unfounded and are not supported by objective data. By itself, a call to the police to give evidence or participate in investigative actions is not and cannot be considered as the use of an illegal method of influence. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides for liability for the dissemination of deliberately false information, up to criminal liability," the message of the Almanty Police Department says.

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan stated that KazTAG is trying to obstruct the investigation.

— As of today, the prosecutor's office has not recorded any illegal actions or torture by the investigators against the participants in these cases. All procedural actions are carried out in full compliance with the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. These individuals spread false information in order to form a favorable public opinion, discredit law enforcement agencies and create obstacles to ensure the completeness, comprehensiveness and objectivity of the investigation of criminal cases, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.

Accusations of an information order

Freedom Finance's lawyers claim that they have at their disposal a philological examination and evidence that KazTAG's articles contain deliberately false information.

In 2025, the publication published more than 150 texts and posts mentioning Freedom Finance. For example, they stated that "Freedom had no right to carry out transactions with American stocks for clients" — despite the fact that the company is an intermediary in trading in the US securities market and is under the supervision of the American regulator SEC. Or that a former Freedom employee, who is currently in jail in a fraud case, was a top manager of the company, although in fact he held one of the positions in the sales department, and was sued by Freedom itself, which is the injured party in this case. In describing these situations, the editors neglected fact—checking, a basic journalistic skill that the entire profession relies on.

The publication also quoted lawyer Svetlana Oralbayeva, who stated that "the Freedom scams could not have been committed without Turlov's knowledge." Later, at a civil trial, where Oralbayeva was also summoned, the woman retracted her words, which is reflected in the audio-visual materials of the Medeu District Court of Alma Ata. She added that the journalist quoted a personal conversation without her consent, and if so, then this action violates another principle of journalistic ethics — the principle of informed consent.

In addition, in 2018, the editorial board wrote that Freedom Finance was prosecuted for money laundering and terrorist financing (Article 256 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). However, in fact, the company paid a fine under Article 256 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Violation of reporting requirements".

Freedom Finance lawyers consider these and other data disseminated by the publication to be unreliable, discrediting the company's reputation and honor and leading to real financial losses.

"This creates serious grounds for bringing to justice in both civil and criminal proceedings, as it refutes the basic facts on which a large—scale campaign of discredit was based," said Alexander Kamendrovsky, lawyer for Freedom Finance.

Some outside experts claimed that KazTAG's actions were a PR attack carried out by the publication for money. In particular, the editor-in-chief Orda.kz Gulnar Bazhenova claimed that competitors were behind the information campaign. Lawyer Azamat Bekkulov, speaking about the KazTAG case, stressed that "freedom of speech does not give the right to spread false information, especially if it is done systematically and intentionally."

Even the Russian media suggested that the massive release of KazTAG materials was ordered by someone. So, Lenta.ru He cites the words of political analyst Eduard Poletaev, who noted that "fakes and the strong commercialization of the media space are one of the key problems for the country."

— We see that this area is being commercialized to a serious extent, and the chance to make money always tempts to hype on something, - the expert believes.

At the same time, the situation with media financing is not entirely clear. It is clear from open sources that the structures associated with it have been paying relatively low taxes for several years, which have decreased by more than 7 times in 10 years. In addition, the editor-in-chief of the publication, according to the testimony of his ex-wife, works at a minimum wage of 85 thousand tenge.

Is the criminal prosecution of KazTAG under pressure?

A few days after the start of the information campaign, which lasted almost a year, the BBC wrote about the alleged pressure on the Kazakh media, relying on the case of KazTAG and Freedom in the absence of a criminal case. Now that there is a case, opinions in the information space have diverged. Some share KazTAG's point of view, believing that Freedom is putting pressure on the "independent media." Others note that this cannot be called pressure — the company operates within the framework of the current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the editorial staff has opaque financing and a dubious angle of presentation of the material.

It is not surprising that Freedom Finance has decided to fight for its honor and reputation in the legal field, given that false information about the company can cause significant losses for it. Now, the answer to the question of pressure, as well as whether KazTAG fulfilled the information order, will have to be decided by the court.