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Corruption Allegations at Kyrgyzneftgas Put Tashiev’s Network in the Crosshairs

The head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Tax Service has alleged that “Kyrgyzneftegaz was completely under the control of the State Committee for National Security,” amid an unfolding corruption case.

An October 2020 photo of Kamchybek Tashiev and Sadyr Japarov

A nephew of Kyrgyzstan’s recently dismissed security chief Kamchybek Tashiev was reportedly detained in connection with a corruption case involving state-owned Kyrgyzneftegaz. The alleged corruption was exposed in a video report produced by the State Tax Service.

But the sordid tale is far from new: In 2022 Kyrgyz investigative outlet Temirov Live reported on exactly the same schemes, earning founder Bolor Temirov the direct ire of the state, ultimately leading to the revocation of his citizenship and his deportation. The pressure did not stop in 2022, but has continued. Temirov Live was declared extremist by a Kyrgyz court in October 2025.

On March 16, the Kyrgyz State Tax Service’s PR department released an investigation titled “Oil for Their Own: How Kyrgyzneftegaz Was Ruined,” which alleged that over the last five years Kyrgyzneftegaz lost over 4 billion soms (around $45.7 million) in various shadowy schemes. The allegedly pilfered funds, the State Tax Service claimed, ended up in the pockets of relatives and close associates of Tashiev.

The program outlined three schemes: the writing off of 29,000 tons of oil as “production losses,” far in excess of typical losses; the diversion of crude oil to private companies before being sold back to the state oil refinery, the Kyrgyz Petroleum Company; and finally the selling of petroleum products through a select collection of private companies.

Within a day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs Investigative Service announced it had opened a criminal corruption case. On March 18, four people were detained: the former chairman of the board of JSC Kyrgyzneftegaz, Nurgazy Nishanov; the former deputy chairman of the board, Ruslan Altymyshev; and the directors of two affiliated companies, Region Oil and the Kyrgyz Petroleum Company (itself a subsidiary of Kyrgyzneftegaz), Nazgul Aidarova and Baigazy Matisakov, respectively.

Matisakov is Tashiev’s nephew. Another of Tashiev’s nephews, Baigazy’s brother Nurgazy, was reportedly dismissed from his post as head of the transport prosecutor’s office in mid-February.

Before the arrests, media reports claimed that Tashiev’s son, Tai-Muras Tashiev, had been summoned for questioning. RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Azattyk, reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs “neither confirmed nor denied this information.”

Tai-Muras – who is listed as the founder of Moka Group in government records – had taken to Facebook on March 17 to respond to the State Tax Service’s investigation, taking issue with its description of Moka Group’s business. Tai-Muras disputed the State Tax Service’s allegation that Moka Group had acquired a monopoly over the Kyrgyz Petroleum Company by buying all of its diesel fuel supplies and shutting out other buyers. 

In light of the elder Tashiev’s sudden dismissal in February, and his prominent role in both the administration’s anti-corruption campaign and the crackdown on media, it’s difficult to read this turn of events as anything but a purging of Tashiev’s allies, a curtailing of his financial flows.

Tashiev himself appears front and center in promotional materials for the State Tax........

© The Diplomat