ASTANA -- A court in the Kazakh capital has sentenced Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former head of state nuclear company Kazatomprom, to 14 years in prison.
Dzhakishev's lawyer, Nurlan Beysekeev, confirmed the sentence to reporters outside the courtroom.
Dzhakishev was accused of financial crimes, charges he denied and said were politically motivated.
Kazakh prosecutors announced at the start of this month that there was a new investigation into allegations that Dzhakishev was involved in money laundering.
Dzhakishev took over as head of Kazatomprom in 1998, taking a nearly bankrupt company and turning it into the world's biggest producer of uranium, a feat accomplished last year just a few months after Dzhakishev's arrest.