MP Marina Tauber, targeted in two criminal cases filed on “knowingly accepting party funding from an organised criminal group” and “falsifying the party’s financial management report”, remains under house arrest. The decision was taken by the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal on Wednesday, 16 November, in the context of the appeal lodged by the lawyers of the deputy Shor against the 4 November decision of the Chisinau Ciocana Court, which rejected the request to replace the preventive measure.

The information was confirmed to ZdG by the press service of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.

“We are in a situation where we have no new arguments. Already the last five or six hearings, the state prosecutors come and reiterate the same arguments without proving them. And the court, in a mechanical way, takes them, inserts them in its decisions and pseudo-motivates its solutions. The defence has been based on the fact that there are no conclusive arguments against Mrs Tauber”, said lawyer Iulian Balan.

Magistrates of the Chisinau Ciocana Court rejected on Friday, November 4, the request of Marina Tauber’s lawyers to cancel her arrest and release her.

Marina Tauber herself announced this after the hearing at the Chisinau Court, Ciocana seat.

“My lawyers’ request was rejected, which means that I remain under house arrest (…) I would like to inform you that new searches were organized today at the house of Mr. Dinu Turcanu, president of Orhei district and, as far as I have learned from our lawyers, at some of our activists. (…) As far as I know, Mr. Turcanu was heard at the PCCOCS. We already have a new file on our heads – destabilization of the situation in the country”, Marina Tauber told the “Shor” Party protesters in front of the Chisinau Court, Ciocana seat.

The Chisinau Court of Appeals on 25 October 2022 overturned the decision of the Chisinau Court of 18 October placing Marina Tauber under judicial control and ordered her return to house arrest for 30 days.

In July 2022, anti-corruption prosecutors, together with officers of the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA), carried out several raids in the criminal case concerning the illegal financing of the “Sor” political party. At the time, the CNA announced that in the first half of this year, the “Shor” political party had made payments of 600,000 euros, while reported expenditure was just over 228,000 lei.

According to the evidence on file, it was found that the party had knowingly accepted money of dubious origin from a “criminal group”, which was used for party purposes, such as fees for artists, salaries for members and the organisation of protests. According to the CNA, the money of the “criminal group” arrived in Moldova in the form of transfers and conversions, including in cryptocurrency, and various financing channels such as Dubai, Vienna and Monaco were used to disguise the origin of the funds.

On 23 July, Marina Tauber was remanded in custody for 30 days in Prison No. 13 in the capital. On 16 August, the magistrates extended the arrest warrant for Marina Tauber for another 20 days in penitentiary no. 13. She was subsequently placed under house arrest and the measure was extended several times.

Marina Tauber is the vice-president of the “Shor” party. Earlier, ZdG wrote that Tauber served as mayor of Jora de Mijloc for almost a year before entering the legislature. Until 2016, before entering politics, she was the president of the Moldovan Tennis Federation for six years. Ilan Shor’s former schoolmate is listed in both Kroll reports on the theft of billions from the three banks. According to the report, Tauber, along with other Unibank shareholders, allegedly acted in concert to benefit Ilan Shor.

In 2020, Tauber’s wealth was the pretext for two complaints to the ANI and the PG. At the time, the author of the petition, former socialist MP Marina Radvan, said that the data in Marina Tauber’s asset declarations raised doubts.