Anti-corruption prosecutors accuse Vlad Plahotniuc’s lawyers of delaying the completion of the criminal prosecution in his absence in the “Bank Fraud” case

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) accuses the defense of the former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, of tendencies to procrastinate the examination of the request for the completion of the criminal prosecution in the file generically called “Bank Fraud” in Plahotniuc’s absence. According to the AP, Plahotniuc’s lawyers managed to obtain, citing various reasons, the postponement of six court hearings in which the court was to give its consent to the completion of the criminal prosecution.

The PA also announces that for the next hearing, scheduled for Thursday 17 November, the prosecutors have requested the appointment of a public defender.

In a press release, the PA states that on 22 August 2022 it submitted a request to the investigating judge of the Ciocana court of Chisinau, requesting consent to complete the criminal proceedings in the absence of the accused Vladimir Plahotniuc.

“On this case, the Constitutional Court was seized by a request of the lawyers, on the lifting of the exception of unconstitutionality of the new provisions recently introduced in the Criminal Procedure Code, which allow the completion of criminal proceedings in the absence of the accused, and on 29 September 2022 the Court declared inadmissible the nominated petition.

As a result, 6 court hearings were held, where new requests for lifting the exception of unconstitutionality, requests for recusal, requests for postponement of the case, or requests for postponement of the court hearings were submitted by the defence, and the prosecutors consistently pleaded for the rejection of the respective requests”, the AP reports.

The last court hearing was adjourned due to the non-appearance of counsel, so, according to the PA, a request has been made for the appointment of a court-appointed lawyer to continue the examination of the case at the hearing scheduled for 17 November 2022 at 15:30.

In this episode, for which consent was requested for the completion of the prosecution, Vladimir Plahotniuc was indicted for creating and directing a “criminal organisation, fraud and money laundering”. According to prosecutors, the episode incriminated against him refers to the period 2013-2015, when Plahotniuc received in his accounts, through resident companies founded by Ilan Shor through intermediaries, financial means of more than $39 million and 3.5 million euros, which originated from bank loans fraudulently obtained from BC “Unibank” SA, BC “Banca Socială” SA and BC “Banca de Economii” SA.

In the criminal case, a seizure was applied on assets whose beneficial owner is Vladimir Plahotniuc in the amount of over one billion lei.

Vladimir Plahotniuc left Moldova in June 2019, after the party he led, PDM, handed over the government to a coalition formed by ACUM Bloc and PSRM, which broke up in November 2019. In March 2020, the US Embassy in Chisinau confirmed that Plahotniuc is on US soil.

The PA requested Plahotniuc’s extradition in June 2020, when the former democratic leader was located in the US, and in September 2020, when he was identified in Turkey, respectively, but no responses to these requests from both countries have reached the Chisinau authorities.

On 1 October 2021, the AP submitted a repeated request to the Interpol National Central Bureau in Moldova asking the General Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization INTERPOL to issue an international wanted persons notice for Plahotniuc.