Suspended Prosecutor-General Alexandr Stoianoglo indicted in a case of illicit enrichment

Suspended Prosecutor-General Alexandr Stoianoglo, under investigation for passive bribery, false statements and abuse of office, has been indicted in a new case. It concerns a criminal case in which he is being investigated for illicit enrichment. The information was confirmed to the Guard newspaper by representatives of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), who have not yet provided further details on the case.

“We confirm the indictment of Alexandr Stoianoglo on April 19 for the crime of illicit enrichment,” PA representatives told ZdG.

Asked by Ziarul de Gardă to comment on the charges against the suspended prosecutor general, Vasile Gafton, Alexandr Stoianoglo’s lawyer, said he does not comment on the “aberrations of the prosecutors”.

“We have nothing to say, we cannot comment on the aberrations of the prosecutors,” said Vasile Gafton, one of the suspended prosecutor general’s lawyers.

In September 2022, a criminal case was opened against the suspended prosecutor general on reasonable suspicion of committing the crime of illicit enrichment. It happened after the Supreme Prosecutors’ Council (SPC) appointed prosecutor Victor Furtună in August 2022 to examine a complaint about alleged illegal enrichment and money laundering committed by suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo.

“It is suspected that the person, through third parties, owns certain assets that substantially exceed the value of the assets he could legally acquire,” prosecutor Victor Furtuna explained to ZdG.

At the time, Stoianoglo stated that the apartment, one of the subjects of the complaint, belongs to his daughter and was purchased in 2015. According to Stoianoglo, at that time he was neither a prosecutor general, nor a deputy, nor a civil servant, so he cannot be “the subject of this illegality”.

“I want to remind everyone that I became attorney general at the end of November 2019. My daughter’s apartment, which is being discussed, was bought in 2015, when I was neither attorney general, deputy nor civil servant. Therefore, I cannot be the subject of this illegality. (…) Even a superficial analysis of my personal statements shows that my salary during the time I was a deputy in Parliament (2009-2014) far exceeds the cost of the purchased apartment,” Stoianoglo explains on Facebook.

In January 2023, Stoianoglo announced that he had submitted a petition to the interim leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) requesting “an end to the illegal practice of persecuting public persons through the use of criminal prosecutions for illicit enrichment”. According to the suspended Prosecutor General, since October 2021 prosecutors have started “an avalanche of cases for illicit enrichment” and the PG has not come up with a methodology for prosecuting these categories of crimes, which has led to “abusive practices” of law enforcement in criminal trials.

Alexandr Stoianoglo was suspended from the position of Prosecutor General at the beginning of October 2021 and is being investigated for passive bribery, false statements, abuse of office and exceeding the duties of his office. He was under house arrest until March 2022, after which he was placed under provisional release under judicial supervision. Suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo denies all charges and pleads not guilty.