Pavlodar court sentences five women to five years in maternity fraud case

September 11, 2026 at 06:52 PM2 min

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A Pavlodar court sentenced five women to five years in prison each for fraudulently registering 60 pregnant women as employees of a state corporation branch. The scheme, run by a former department head of the Government for Citizens corporation, caused damage exceeding 236 million tenge. The organizer was taken into custody in the courtroom, while the other four received deferred sentences.

Key Facts

The Pavlodar interdistrict criminal court sentenced five women to five years in prison each for fraud involving fictitious employment of pregnant women.
The scheme caused damage exceeding 236 million tenge to the State Social Insurance Fund between 2022 and 2024.
The organizer, a 44-year-old former head of the social welfare department at the Pavlodar district branch of the Government for Citizens corporation, was taken into custody in the courtroom.
The other four defendants, including the organizer's sister-in-law, received five-year sentences with deferred serving of punishment.
The scheme involved fictitiously employing 60 pregnant women who received inflated salaries to claim higher social benefits.

The Fraud Scheme

The organizer was the head of the social welfare department at the Pavlodar district branch of the Government for Citizens corporation. She recruited her sister-in-law, a bookkeeper with access to digital signatures of several individual entrepreneurs, to facilitate the scheme. Other acquaintances were also involved in finding pregnant women willing to provide their documents for fictitious employment. The women's salaries were deliberately inflated to enable higher social payments from the State Social Insurance Fund.

Court Findings and Sentences

Judge Bibigul Sabitdenova of the Pavlodar interdistrict criminal court stated that witness testimony confirmed the defendants explained to the women that they could receive increased monthly childcare allowances up to one and a half years. The pregnant women kept the monthly childcare payments but were required to hand over the one-time pre-birth payment to the scheme participants. The court found all five defendants guilty of fraud and sentenced each to five years of imprisonment. The former department head was taken into custody in the courtroom, while the other four received deferred sentences.