Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) is continuing its investigation into one of the country’s most high-profile financial crimes in recent years: the large-scale embezzlement of pension savings through fictitious dental services. Authorities allege that millions of dollars were siphoned from the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) via a sprawling criminal scheme involving dozens of dental clinics.
According to the FMA, the investigation is ongoing and centers on clinic managers and their accomplices. The alleged scheme involved the withdrawal of pension savings from the UAPF through formal contracts for dental procedures, backed by forged medical documents.
“For such ‘assistance,’ the organizers of the scheme received illegal remuneration amounting to 10% to 20% of the withdrawn funds,” the agency said.
In total, 42 dental clinics are implicated. Investigators estimate that more than $390 million was illicitly funneled through these entities. The funds were reportedly used to acquire luxury real estate and other high-value assets, as well as to open new dental clinics registered under front persons to obscure the identities of the real beneficiaries.
Some of the fabricated diagnoses were blatantly implausible. In one instance, a 21-year-old was diagnosed with “complete edentulism” (total tooth loss) and simultaneously prescribed both teeth cleaning and braces.
In response to the violations uncovered, Kazakhstan suspended the use of pension savings to pay for dental services as of September 15, 2025. The measure, though temporary, signals a tightening of regulatory oversight amid public outcry.
The program allowing partial use of pension savings for medical services was first introduced in 2021. It enabled citizens to access funds exceeding the so-called “sufficiency threshold” to pay for treatments, including expensive dental procedures such as prosthetics and implants.
