New details in the “Bank Fraud” case: the PA announces when the next court hearing in the case of Vladimir Plahotniuc will take place

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) announces that a new court hearing has been set for February 6, 2023, at 11:00 a.m., at the Chisinau Court of Appeal on the case of the defendant Vladimir Plahotniuc in the case generically called “Bank Fraud.”

On November 17, 2022, the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Ciocana seat, admitted the PA’s request for consent to complete the criminal prosecution in the absence of the defendant Plahotniuc. As a result, the PA announced, the defenders in the interests of the defendant Plahotniuc appealed the decision of the court of first instance, and the first hearing in the Chisinau Court of Appeal was held on 28 December 2022.

“As a result, three court hearings were held, where the defense submitted new requests for lifting the exception of unconstitutionality, requests for recusal, or requests for postponement of court hearings, with the prosecutors constantly pleading for the rejection of these requests,” PA representatives announced.

Anti-corruption prosecutors say that if the Chisinau Court of Appeal upholds the contested judgment, the criminal case will be sent to trial for examination on the merits.

In this episode, for which consent was requested for the completion of the criminal proceedings, Vladimir Plahotniuc was indicted for creating and leading a “criminal organization, 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 PA 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.