Four Russians Arrested in Connection with Daring Bank Heist in Kazakhstan

A court in Ivanovo, Russia, has placed four individuals under house arrest as part of an investigation into a major bank robbery that occurred in Kazakhstan. The criminal case was initiated on November 11, 2024, by the central police department of Pavlodar.

The case concerns the theft of jewelry and cash from a deposit vault at a branch of JSC "Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan." The total damage is estimated at nearly 400 million Russian rubles (approximately 2.57 billion Kazakh tenge) across various currencies. The Russian citizens face charges of committing theft by an organized group on an especially large scale.

The incident took place in autumn 2024 in Pavlodar, where unknown perpetrators broke through a wall of a Halyk Bank branch located on the ground floor of a five-story residential building and stole over one billion tenge. A criminal case was opened for grand larceny, with police reporting the theft of gold items and money. Five suspects, all Russian citizens, were subsequently detained.

In February 2025, the Pavlodar Region Police Department reported that a Kazakh court had sanctioned the arrest of the detainees. A joint investigative task force was established.

By May 2025, the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the criminal case regarding the Pavlodar bank theft had been transferred to Russian investigative authorities through supervisory bodies in accordance with international procedure. The victims are approximately 40 Kazakh citizens. Kazakh police continued to assist their Russian counterparts in investigating this high-profile case.

On January 21, 2026, Bolat Nurseitov, First Deputy Head of the Pavlodar Region Police Department, provided an update during a briefing. He stated that department employees had recently returned from a business trip to Georgia and Armenia, where accomplices to the crime are believed to be located. Comprehensive legal assistance was provided by these states, and necessary investigative measures were conducted. These materials will subsequently be sent to the Prosecutor General's Office and investigative bodies of the Russian Federation.

Nurseitov noted it was difficult to specify the exact stage of the investigation but confirmed it is ongoing with results expected soon. Most of the roughly 40 victims are residents of Pavlodar Region. The precise total amount of stolen money and valuables remains undisclosed; many victims reportedly did not wish for their losses to be publicized widely.