The chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), Veronica Dragalin, is targeted in a scandal related to the competition for the head of the PA, which was held in 2022. In a separate opinion of three members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) against a 2022 decision of the Council, it is mentioned that Veronica Dragalin’s higher education diplomas, obtained in the US, were allegedly presented in copies and not equivalent in Moldova.

Ziarul de Gardă has obtained several relevant reactions on the subject and presents the chronology of events surrounding the PA head’s diplomas presented at the 2022 contest.

On 7 June 2022, the SCP adopted the decision by which Veronica Dragalin passed the pre-selection stage in the competition for the position of chief prosecutor of the PA. Subsequently, the Council proposed Veronica Dragalin’s candidacy to the former acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu to be appointed as chief prosecutor of the PA. Dragalin obtained the highest score in the interview test – 72.15 points. Eight days after the SCP’s decision, on 15 June 2022 to be precise, Dumitru Robu signed an order appointing her to the post as of 1 August 2022.

On Thursday, 13 July 2023, information from a separate opinion of three members of the High Council of Prosecutors (HCC) was initially published on several Telegram channels regarding a Council decision of 30 May 2022 on “examining the admissibility of procedures at the pre-selection stage of candidates for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the PA”. Although the SCP’s website indicates that the document was uploaded on 30 May 2022, the web address of that act suggests that it was actually published in July 2023. ZdG contacted the SCP’s Protocol, International and Public Relations Service on Thursday 13 July to clarify whether the document was published on the SCP website in 2022 or even on 13 July 2023. Eugeniu Roșca, a representative of the Service, told us that he does not know when the document was published and that it has no legal value. At the same time, Rosca stressed that there is no deadline for the publication of separate opinions and that “placing them on the website is up to someone else”.

In the separate opinion formed by SCP members Eduard Varzar, Inga Furtună and Angela Motuzoc it is mentioned that in the first stage of the competition for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the PA, Veronica Dragalin’s higher education diplomas, obtained in the USA, were presented in copies and were not equivalent in R. Moldova, which would make it “impossible to automatically assign them (without the necessary checks) to the categories of legally prescribed educational documents such as bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in law”.

“In his competition file, XXX submitted copies of the diploma issued in 2008 by Duke University (in Durham, North Carolina, USA) certifying the degree “Bachelor of Science” (in the field of biology and chemistry, as shown in XXX’s CV) and the diploma issued in 2011 by the University of Virginia School of Law (in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA), certifying the degree “Juris Doctor” (…).

Therefore, when analysing the application file of XXX and the material of the Special Pre-selection Committee, in the absence of a Certificate of Recognition and/or Equivalence of the educational documents obtained abroad, it is not clear on the basis of which criteria the Special Pre-selection Committee assessed the fulfilment by the candidate concerned of the eligibility criterion laid down in Art. 20 paragraph (1) letter d) of the Law no. 3/2016, or, as mentioned above, the pre-selection commission could not assign its powers and competences to the Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Education related to the recognition and/or equivalence of the candidate’s educational documents obtained abroad for access to the labour market in Moldova. Moreover, the Superior Council of Prosecutors is not entitled to assume such competences and is not entitled to decide on this issue in the absence of the conclusion of the specialized institution,” the document says.

When did the MEC issue the Certificate of Recognition and Equivalence of Veronica Dragalin’s studies?

According to the Law on the Attorney General’s Office, the recognition and equivalence of educational documents obtained in foreign educational institutions is carried out under the conditions established by the Ministry of Education and Research (MEC).

In a comment to ZdG, MEC representatives said that the Certificate of Recognition and Equivalence of Veronica Dragalin’s studies was issued on October 13, 2022, i.e. more than two months after she was appointed to head the PA.

“(…) The file in the name of Dragalin Veronica was registered in the Electronic Document Management System, managed by the Ministry of Education and Research, with the number 11078 on 29.09.2022. Following the analysis of the file, the Certificate of Recognition and Equivalence No. 03/3-09/4539 of 13.10.2022 was issued,” said the representatives of the institution.

On this issue, ZdG also requested a comment from the PA, but the institution’s representatives said they reserved “the right not to comment”.

Veronica Dragalin: “I assure you that I have all the necessary studies, diplomas and professional experience”

On Thursday evening, 13 July, a few hours after the separate opinion of the three SCP members appeared in the public space, the head of the PA, Veronica Dragalin, who is on a working visit to Vienna, Austria, posted a message on her Facebook page in which, among other things, she stated that “I assure you that I have all the necessary education, diplomas and professional experience to hold this key position in the fight for justice, justice and the rule of law in Moldova”.

Member of the Commission for the pre-selection of the Chief Prosecutor of the PA: “Juris Doctor studies are more than the equivalent of master’s studies in law in Moldova”

In the context of Veronica Dragalin obtaining the Certificate of Recognition and Equivalence of Studies after her appointment, ZdG also contacted the Executive Director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, Iulian Groza, who was a member of the Pre-selection Commission for the Chief Prosecutor of the PA, to find out how the Commission evaluated the academic documents submitted by Veronica Dragalin in the competition.

Iulian Groza claims that at that stage, the Commission found that “the Juris Doctor studies are more than equivalent to master’s studies in law in Moldova”.

Iulian Groza: “(…) At the stage when we were evaluating the files, we analysed all aspects, including the studies. One of the issues we really listened to was the question of whether a Juris Doctor degree in the US is equivalent to a Master of Law degree in Moldova, as this was a condition – the candidate must meet this criterion. Let me remind you, the committee included an American prosecutor, a Lithuanian prosecutor, Laura Stefan (n.ed. anti-corruption policy coordinator, Expert Forum, Romania), and the prosecutor Mrs Gornea. All five of us discussed this topic. From the information that the American prosecutor presented to us, the conclusion that we all unanimously reached at that stage was that Juris Doctor studies are more than the equivalent of Master of Law studies in Moldova.

We discussed and unanimously agreed on this, which we also reflected in the minutes (…) It is somewhat puzzling why this information has only now been published on the CSP website. This decision, including the separate opinion, should have been published at the time of the decisions that were taken then, but that is another matter on which I do not want to speculate. From the point of view of the mandate of the pre-selection commission, we did not consider that the lack of a confirmatory paper document from the Ministry of Education of equivalence would be a criterion for non-admission of the candidate in the competition, because, in fact, the diploma she holds is more than the equivalent of a law degree in Moldova. So we had to make a proportionality decision, especially considering that the candidate, at the time of participation in the competition, was not in Moldova and did not have the physical mobility to come to make other approaches to the authorities (…)”, said Iulian Groza.

SCP member: “There were sufficient legal avenues for someone who felt their rights had been infringed to bring legal proceedings, which did not happen”

Andrei Cebotari, member of the SCP, claims that by the separate opinion of his three colleagues “where they allude that Veronica Dragalin was illegally appointed as chief prosecutor at the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office because she “does not have higher education”, these members of the SCP have clearly exceeded the limits of their rights and powers granted by law”.

“(…) There were sufficient legal avenues for someone who felt their rights had been infringed to bring legal proceedings, which did not happen. Therefore, we note that although there is no court decision that would have questioned the legality of the actions of the Special Pre-selection Commission, three members of the SCP more than a year after that decision decided to come with a separate opinion, arrogating to themselves the powers of the Special Commission. They admit that the aim was not to elucidate the truth but to politicise the subject. In this vein, they can tomorrow come up with a separate opinion on a disciplinary procedure that a law is flawed/unconstitutional (arrogating to themselves the competence of Parliament or the Constitutional Court) or that a court’s decision is illegal (arrogating to themselves the competence of the higher court). Coincidence or not, but they came up with the separate opinion on the day when the latest results of the Pre-vetting Commission were delivered to the SCP, the day from which the SCP has 7 days to announce the date of convening the General Assembly of Prosecutors, which means irreversible termination of their mandate in about 2 months,” Cebotari reacted in a Facebook post.

The legal expert Serghei Covali also reacted to the issue, saying that Veronica Dragalin is qualified to head the PA.

“I have a modest experience of studying law in the U.S. (M.A.) I understand very well how the system works there for basic studies in law (JD) because, at one point, I planned to do such studies. By the way, anyone can understand how the system works after 5 min on google. You don’t have to be a great lawyer, attorney or prosecutor. I can say with all responsibility that Ms Dragalin is qualified. Those who state otherwise could be classified into two camps: total incompetents with serious problems understanding the world around them; or a bad faith that pushes them to nonsensical statements. Let them choose which category they belong to. For me both are ‘ниже плинтуса’,” said Serghei Covali.

Veronica Dragalin is the daughter of Elena Dragalin, founder of Moldova AID and the Moldovan-American Convention, and the Dragalin family is based in the US. According to data published on the University of Southern California website, Veronica Dragalin was a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. According to her resume, in 2019, Veronica Dragalin received the “Case of the Year” award from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In 2020, she received the FBI Director’s Award.