Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Center, Lidia Chireoglo, sent on October 30, 2019, a request to the General Anticorruption Directorate within the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, regarding the finding in Romania Vladimir Plahotniuc, former leader of the Democratic Party. Plahotniuc is suspected of money laundering, in very large proportions. 

According to the request signed by Chireoglo, Moldova’s National Anticorruption Center requests the Romanian party to identify the place of Plahotniuc’s location, in the context of the information that he would have been in Iași, in the area of ​​Parhon hospital in Copou, between October 25-28, 2019.

The National Anticorruption Center states in a press release that, on November 5, the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs informed that the request was redirected to the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police.

Earlier, the deputy of the ACUM bloc, Igor Grosu, said that Plahotniuc would have been in Iași.

In order to identify Plahotniuc’s whereabouts, the National Anticorruption Center informs that it has made demarches to the United Kingdom and the United States embassies to Moldova. 

At the same time, according to the requests addressed to the two ambassadors, the former leader of the Democratic Party would have been in the city of Miami, Florida, between July 5-7 and November 18-20,2019. 

And between June 15-20, immediately after the withdrawal of the then ruling Democratic Party from power, Plahotniuc would have been in the capital of the United Kingdom, London.

At the beginning of October, representatives of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office informed that the former leader of the Democratic Party, Vladimir Plahotniuc, is suspected of committing the offense provided by art. 243 of the Criminal Code – money laundering, in very large proportions.

Two other persons are targeted in this money laundering case, one of whom has already been detained for 30 days, and in the name of another, the authorities issued an order for indictment and searches for the person. 

In this time, although he was announced in international search, the authorities were unable to obtain information about Vladimir Plahotniuc’s whereabouts, nor about the second person involved in the case.

At the same time, Plahotniuc’s accomplices, who were detained for 30 days, were released by the court. 

About the other person detained in the money laundering case, ZdG wrote earlier that he goes by the name of Victor Gammer. The authorities accused Gammer of complicity in the crime of money laundering, as he fictively managed a resident commercial company through which some of the money was transferred.

The chief prosecutor of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, Viorel Morari, informed us that six persons were heard in the file, five as suspects, and only one as a witness. At the same time, according to Morari, during this period searches were carried out in five locations.

“Special investigative measures have been ordered and the international legal aid rogatory commission has been issued in Latvia, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Hong Kong. This is what I can offer you, “ Viorel Morari said. 

Previously Viorel Morari,  the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, admitted that a criminal case in the name of Vladimir Plahotniuc could have been opened earlier; however, if certain actions had been taken during the Democratic Party government, he would have been removed from office through disciplinary proceedings or criminal charges.

According to the prosecutors during the years 2013-2015, Vladimir Plahotniuc created a criminal scheme with the purpose of converting, transferring, acquiring, owning and using some goods that he definitely knew constituted illicit income. 

Prosecutors claim that in order to conceal the illicit nature of the goods, Plahotniuc set up – through intermediaries – several domestic and foreign companies, through which he organized the circulation of money means in very large proportions – about $18 million and €3.5 million. The materials of the case demonstrate that Plahotniuc was aware that the money constituted illicit financial means, obtained through non-performing bank loans from Banca De Economii, Unibank, and Banca Socială. 

Diana Gaţcan, gatcan.diana@gmail.com