According to him, when he managed the company, expenses at "Kumtor" were reduced by 17%. In 2022, the mine transferred 42 billion soms to the country's budget, which was a record amount.
Bolturuk also mentioned that there are 108 tons of gold in the tailings storage, and a project was initiated to process 80 tons of this volume, but it was not completed.
He reported that in 2022, supplies of spare parts, fuel, and other materials for "Kumtor" were halted at the border due to protests in Almaty in January and the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
As a result, he had to travel to Iran to negotiate with the Deputy Minister of Railways about restoring supplies. An agreement was also reached to rent the port of Bandar Abbas, which provided Kyrgyzstan access to global maritime routes, he noted.
However, Bolturuk expressed regret that after these events, some members of the cabinet began to act against him, and his contribution to the company's development was not properly appreciated.
It is worth recalling that in September 2022, the General Prosecutor's Office conducted an audit of the activities of CJSC "Kumtor Gold Company" and uncovered corruption schemes, resulting in a recorded damage to the state of 1 billion soms. In the same month, Bolturuk was detained.
The Accounts Chamber presented the results of the audit of CJSC "Kumtor Gold Company" from May 2021 to June 2022, and Bolturuk was accused of:
- allocating $1.9 million for the "Heritage of Great Nomads" projects that were not implemented, negatively affecting the financial condition of "Kumtor" and "Kyrgyzaltyn";
- allocating $1.7 million for employee salaries;
- transferring $51,000 to a Swiss company for services without supporting documents;
- renting an office in Bishkek for nearly $73,000 a month;
- spending $2.3 million on setting up a new office in Bishkek, including a double design order costing $46,000;
- unjustified increase in the staff of "Kumtor" by 37% and unwarranted bonuses for himself;
- other financial violations.
Bolturuk's lawyer, Kaysyn Abakirov, stated that there are no criminal elements in his client's actions, and the results of Bolturuk's activities should be assessed as a whole, not by individual aspects.
At the end of April 2023, Tengiz Bolturuk and other defendants in the corruption case reimbursed 844 million 512 thousand soms to the budget (which amounted to 80% of the total damage of 1 billion 146 million 449 thousand 161 soms). The amount contributed by Bolturuk was not specified, but this allowed his lawyers to achieve the satisfaction of another petition, and Bolturuk was released from pre-trial detention under house arrest. On July 4, his arrest was extended until August 10, and in mid-September, it became known that the criminal case against Bolturuk was suspended due to his illness.
On November 21, 2023, Judge Ilyazbek Tajibaev of the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek issued a ruling in Bolturuk's case, imposing a fine of 800,000 soms. The arrest of his accounts (with $2,065 and 5,601 soms) was lifted after the verdict came into force, and 10 million soms received in the account of the General Prosecutor's Office for damage reimbursement to the state were transferred to "Kumtor."
