Kazakhaltyn, a production subsidiary of KazakhGold, may suspend operations from August 16 if the government does not unfreeze its accounts to pay for production expenses, Kazakhaltyn said on Tuesday.
The Kazakhstan Finance Ministry tax committee has been investigating Kazakhaltyn since the beginning of August. The finance police froze the company's accounts in a case against shareholders of KazakhGold, Kazakhstan's top gold producer.
Kazakhaltyn expects a court decision on its appeal against the freezing of the accounts on August 13, KazakhGold said. If the court does not unfreeze the company's accounts, the plant will stop working from August 16.
The finance police have opened a criminal case against Yevgeny Ivanov, German Pikhoya and Alexei Texler, shareholders of KazakhGold and board members of PolyusGold, on suspicions of a fraudulent acquisition of a stake in KazakhGold in 2009. KazakhGold has denied all charges saying that there was no legal basis for the case.
In July 2010, KazakhGold began a reverse takeover procedure which gave Polyus Gold a controlling stake, in a deal valued at $9.4 billion.
ALMATY, August 10 (RIA Novosti)
