The Prosecutor General of Kyiv sent a letter to Moldova’s Prosecutor General, Alexandr Stoianoglo, requesting him to extradite Veaceslav Platon, former deputy in Ukraine. The requests comes after more than three years ago the Ukrainian authorities extradite Platonto Moldova. 

Veceslav Platon, a Moldovan businessman and former member of Moldova’s Parliament between 2009 and 2010 was sentenced in April 2017, to 18 years in prison for fraud and money laundering in particularly high proportions in the fraud file from the Banca de Economii. Receiving later a sentence of 12 years in a new file, accused of fraud and money laundering. 

On July 26, 2016, the Ukrainian Secret Service detained Platon in Kyiv and subsequently arrested him for 40 days. On August 29, the same year, Veaceslav Platon was extradited to Moldova.

Also in 2016, a few months later, the Kyiv Court of Appeal declared the extradition of Veaceslav Plato illegal. At that time, the Ukrainian magistrates announced that the decision of the first court on which Platon was extradited to the Moldovan authorities is to be annulled and reviewed.

After in November this year Kyiv Pechersk Court overturned the decision from August 2016, of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine to extradite Veaceslav Platon, the Prosecutor General of Kyiv issued a letter requesting Moldova’s authorities to extradite Veceslav Platon to Ukraine. 

Platon’s lawyer mentioned that if Moldova’s authorities will not respond to the requests made by the Ukrainian authorities, Ukraine may suspend international cooperation in the field of law, on the principle of parity. 

Contacted by the ZdG, the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office informed us that they received the letter.

“Moldova’s General Prosecutor’s Office received the request of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine regarding the case of the citizen Platon. And the Prosecutor’s Office will examine it, according to the law,” the representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office told ZdG.

Previously, ZdG asked an expert about the possibility of Platon’s extradition back to Ukraine and for all the cases opened by Moldova’s authorities in his name to be annulled. The expert claimed that the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to cancel the previously issued extradition order in 2016, will have no influence on Platon’s sentence as he was sentenced as a citizen of Moldova and should serve his penance accordingly. 

Platon is one of the wealthiest people in Moldova, with businesses in the field of sugar and banking in Moldova, and atomic energy in Ukraine.

Platon is the alleged architect of the Russian Laundromat, a scheme to move $20–80 billion out of Russia from 2010 to 2014 through a network of global banks, many of them in Moldova and Latvia.