At the end of 2019, the suspended head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Viorel Morari, issued an order to investigate the Socialist Party’s assets which were suspected of receiving foreign funding.

The investigation showed the connection between the possibility of Socialist Party receiving foreign financing and the criminal case of money laundering in very large proportions, where the Exclusive Media company, whose founder is the deputy of the Socialist Party Corneliu Furculiță, is involved.

The anticorruption prosecutors requested the State Tax Service information about the donations received by the Socialist Party but also about several companies and persons affiliated with the Socialists. 

ZdG got hold of these documents and analyzed them to find more details about the Socialist Party financing from abroad.

The issue of Socialist Party receiving financing from abroad became a hot topic, when Publika, a TV channel owned by fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, broadcasted a video from the negotiations between Plahotniuc and President Igor Dodon. 

In the video, the president affirms that monthly the Socialist Party receives around $1 million. In August 2019, prosecuting institutions refused to investigate the case, coming back to it in December 2019, when the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office requested several photocopies of the documents with persons and companies who have financial ties with the Socialist Party. 

Ziarul de Gardă got hold of documents in which the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office is asking the State Tax Service to present photocopies of all the documents held regarding several persons and companies that had financial relations with the Socialist Party (origin, payment of income taxes, income tax returns, etc.).

At the same time, the anti-corruption prosecutors asked the State Tax Service to submit the control documents regarding the sources of financing of the Socialist Party.

Following the investigations, the prosecutors found that in February 2016, over €1.4 million came to the Exclusive Media company’s accounts, from Westerby Limited, an offshore company registered in the Bahamas.

Later, in March and April 2016, the director of the company, the deputy Petru Burduja and deputy Corneliu Furculiță’s wife, who is the founder of Exclusive Media, withdrew from the company’s accounts over €1 million (20 million lei), invoking the restitution of the financial aid obtained from individuals.

At the same time, it was found that Exclusiv Media received loans from 11 affiliated persons, worth over 255,000 euros (5 million lei), including 100,000 dollars from the non-residential company Bulwer Development (represented by Iaroslav Țurcan). 

Țurcan appears as president of the Din Suflet Foundation, founded and administered by Galina Dodon, the president’s wife, who is also on the prosecutor’s list.

Țurcan’s name also appears in All the (Moldovan) President’s Men, ZdG wrote in that investigation that Țurcan is from Dubăsari, in the Transnistrian breakaway region, holds a Russian passport from 2013, and on social networks and in real life. He is a supporter of the Socialist Party and the presidential family.

• All the (Moldovan) President’s Men

The loans received by Exclusive Media, amounted to about 358,000 euros (7 million lei), not over €1 million (20 million), as it was withdrawn from the company’s accounts before. Also, the company granted around 450,000 euros (8.8 million lei) as loans to 17 persons, without interest.

Subsequently, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office requested from the State Tax Service information about 27 persons, and six companies suspected that would be involved in this scheme. 

The list includes several current and former Socialist Party deputies, including Petru Burduja, Corneliu Furculiță, Petru Corduneanu, Vasilea Bolea, and Vladimir Odnostalco. 

In the list, we find the president’s wife, Galina Dodon, the former councilor of Igor Dodon, current member of the Central Election Commission, Maxim Lebedinschi, the head of the Presidency’s press service, Carmena Lupei, but also the brother of the president’s godchild, Vadim Filipov.

On the list of companies that would have had financial relations with the Socialist Party is Exclusive Media company, which manages the NTV Moldova station. Prosecutors think that Telesistem TV company, which manages Accent TV and Primul în Moldova, but also Bulwer Development, a non-resident company.

In addition to the respective companies and individuals, prosecutors request information regarding the donations received by the Socialist Party, in particular, the information concerning persons who have donated over 500 euros (10,000 lei) for the Socialist Party. 

ZdG asked the State Tax Service about this claiming that it offered an answer to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office request. 

“We offered an answer, within the limits of the information available, and the legal abilities, to the request coming from the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office,” the State Tax Service affirmed. 

Bahamas Operation

Earlier, investigative journalists revealed a scheme through which the Socialist Party acquired money from offshore areas or from suspicious persons. Rise Moldova wrote that the Socialist Party would have benefited from millions of lei, coming from a secret deal with an offshore company in the Bahamas, connected to Russia. 

The company made a transfer of over €1.5 million (30 million lei), and the money entered Moldova through Exclusive Media a few months before the presidential elections. Based on loan agreements, millions of lei have reached from this company to several people close to the party and its sponsors. 

Although it comes from the Bahamas, the offshore loan agreement and Furculiță’s firm were drafted in Russian and English, and all litigation arising from the contract is regulated by Russia’s material and procedural law. The Socialist Party has constantly benefited from generous donations from Exclusive Media employees. During the 2014 electoral campaign, they donated around 4,300 euros (85,000 lei). 

Diana Gaţcan, gatcan.diana@gmail.com