Created more than ten years ago, the Savings and Loan Association (S&L) registered in many villages in Moldova, left a great number of people without their lifetime savings. The state didn’t impose any restriction, as a way to increase trust in these associations, letting the associations at the administrators’ mercy. 

However, some of the administrators often put their interests forward, leaving people without their savings. ZdG analyzed several documents, concluding that despite being allowed to borrow no more than 1,000 euros the S&L kept concentrating big amounts of money in the hands of several so-called leaders, who in the meantime moved abroad or alienated their assets. Since 2007, the state began to regulate the activity of S&L associations, imposing certain restrictions on them. 

However, the measures come too late as desperate people are filing dozens of appeals trying to get their money back. The trials continue and a ping-pong game between the administrators and the debtors, as who is to assume the responsibility continues indefinitely. In the meantime, many of those who deposited their money passed away already, without having any money paid back, while those who are still alive entreat the authorities to hear them.

ZdG takes a closer look at the story of the so-called peasants’ banks meant to contribute towards economic growth, but which in fact impoverished people. 

How did these S&L Associations appear?

The so-called peasants’ banks appeared at the end of the ’90s and were meant to support farmers with small loans from money means taken with interest under the term deposit contracts signed with the members of the association (locals), this is why people call them also peasants’ banks. 

The collected money was transmitted to so-called leaders or village people who needed financial resources for agricultural activities in exchange for an interest rate.

The first S&L associations were created following an initiative of the World Bank and the Government of Moldova.

Eleven S&L associations were created and credited as part of the Rural Financing Project, which started at the end of 1996, with their number growing up to 550.

Associations with debts of millions

On the portal of the national courts, we find dozens of files concerning the activity of the savings and loan associations. Many disputes reached the Supreme Court of Justice, but in most cases, the simple people were those who suffered, who remained without money and without hope. Vîsoca S&L Association and Dânceni S&L Association are only two cases of several others at which we will take a closer look.  

How did Vîsoca S&L Association appear?

Vîsoca S&L Association, in Soroca district, north of Moldova, was registered in 1999 at the State Registration Chamber. Iurie Codreanu, also from Vîsoca, was director of the association from its foundation till now. 

The association ceased its activity in 2011, due to the lack of financial resources, registering debts to several depositors in the village. In 2019, the association had to repay debts to 19 persons. Seven of them are already dead.

Iurie Codreanu, the director of Vîsoca S&L association, admits that he has debts to repay to the villagers, but he says that he will be able to pay them only when those whom he had lent the money will repay their debts. Codreanu mentions that he loaned the money to other members of the association, but they refuse to pay it back.

ZdG met with some of the persons who entrusted their money to Vîsoca S&L discussing with them the situation they are going through. 

Who entrusted their money to Vîsoca S&L Association?

One of the persons to whom Vîsoca S&L has debts to is Eugenia. She is a 71-year-old woman, who lives alone in an old house in Vîsoca. 

Eugenia decided to deposit the money at this association after both her sister and her neighbor, as well as several other villagers, entrusted their savings to this so-called peasants’ bank, which promised interests of 18-20 percent.

Till 2010, she deposited around 2,000 euros (38,000 lei) at Vîsoca S&L Association. She saved the money for a lifetime, selling walnuts. Although the association closed Eugenia never got her money back nor the interest on savings. 

Eugenia remembers how she, together with her mother, worked hard day and night to make some money, collecting, year after year, walnuts and cracking them and selecting the kernels to sell them later.

The woman repeatedly addressed the director of the Vîsoca association but to no avail.

A month ago, the woman had her left foot amputated and although she needs prosthesis and medications, she cannot afford to buy them on her 40 euros (800 lei) pension.

Eugenia is not the only one who faces such a problem. Dozens of old people from Vîsoca ended up in extreme poverty after they deposited their savings at the so-called peasants’ bank. They wanted to keep their money in a safe place, but also to earn from the interest percentage offered by the association. In the end, however, they were left with nothing. 

Although people saved the money for emergencies or their funeral, many of them already died without receiving any money back. Together with pe them the hope that someday they will get their money back, died as well. 

In 2008, Evghenia Sumer brought to the S&L her personal savings as well as all the money which her husband, who worked abroad sent to her. She was hoping to get a monthly interest rate of 18 percent. Today, the association owes her a debt of over 760 euros (15,000 lei).

Gheorghe Bîcu is another person who also deposited his money at Vîsoca association. He mentions that the association’s director came directly to his house with an offer, and he accepted it. Today, the association owes Bîcu around 2,000 euros (38,000 lei) and despite the fact that six years passed since the court ruled a decision, it was not executed, and he did not receive any money.

“I can’t get the money back and that’s it. Codreanu says that he has no money; even if he had it once, he gave it to the so-called leaders of various land associations. And so to this day we are seeking justice. Nobody thinks of or cares for our peasants,” says the man, sadly.

What does the state say?

According to the National Commission for Financial Market, the S&L association had to address to court for reimbursement of loans and calculated related interest within 30 calendar days from the date on which the loan and /or the related interest had expired for 180 days. 

In this regard, Iurie Codreanu assures us that he addressed the law institutions to have debts repaid to the association, avoiding, however, to give us any evidence. 

“Four years ago, I filed a request to the prosecutor’s office to investigate the case. Nothing came to light in these four years. This is a scam from those who borrowed the money. Sooner or later, they have to answer,” says Iurie Codreanu.

In 2014, the National Commission for Financial Market revoked the license of the Vîsoca S&L association on the grounds that the association received savings deposits in contravention of the legal restrictions, also because it did not comply with the statute of the new provisions in force.

Consequently, according to the National Commission for Financial Market, the association was obliged to liquidate its assets and honor its obligations, which the administrators of the association did not do so far.

People trying to find justice in courts

After several unsuccessful attempts to recover their money, two of the creditors filed civil lawsuits against the S&L association in the court to restore money deposits, as well as interest and penalties.

In 2013-2014, the lawsuits were admitted by the Soroca Court, but have not been executed so far, due to the lack of assets and financial means on the association accounts.

Presently, Victoria Pînzari, one of the two people who addressed the court, needs eye surgery badly. She entreats to be given at least the money she deposited, without the promised interest percentage.

Anastasie Repeșcu, the executor who was to execute the court decision, states that he exhausted all lawful actions to put the execution into effect. However, since the S&L association has no assets that could be seized and no money on its account, he sent the documents back to Gheorghe Bîcu.

People of Vîsoca are continuously searching for justice, but to no avail. Grigorie Sandu, the son of one of the persons who deposited their savings at the Vîsoca S&L association, filed a complaint against the association. But prosecutor Nadejda Drumea, who dealt with the case of the Vîsoca S&L association reasoned that the deed does not meet the constituent elements of the crime, and these relations are the subject of a civil dispute, the solution of which is within the jurisdiction of the court.

The prosecutor also mentioned that no purpose of greed was established in Iurie Codreanu’s actions, both his patrimony and that of the association did not increase, but, on the contrary, suffered heavy losses.

In the first order, Nadejda Drumea refused to start the criminal investigation, invoking the death of Iurie Codreanu. The director of the association explains the prosecutor’s mistake by the fact that his brother died at that time, and that this could be the reason why the prosecutor made the mistake. Contacted by ZdG, Nadejda Drumea claims that it was just a blunder.

“The court’s reasoning was correct, the references to the articles were also correct, simply, the sentence, which was to remain in the text, was mechanically omitted, and this was corrected in the next ordinance. It has nothing to do with the death of the perpetrator, it was a mechanical error, there was nothing about death,” the prosecutor said.

According to the November 29, 2019, ordinance, it appears that the so-called bank went into financial decline, after Iurie Codreanu, in violating the association’s status, concentrated amounts of over 7,600 euros (150,000 lei) in the hands of some so-called leaders from the area, while he had the right to grant up to 1,000 euros (20,000 lei) to a person.

Who are the three debtors?

ZdG examined several documents and the statements of Iurie Codreanu, the director of the Vîsoca S&L association concluding that currently, the association has three debtors who did not repay the loans of more than 16,200 euros (320,000 lei).

Efim Bîcu is one of the debtors. In 2002-2003, he served as interim mayor of Vîsoca, being subsequently elected councilor from the European People’s Platform of Moldova Electoral Block. Currently, he manages over 100 hectares of land in the region. 

Bîcu denies that he owes a debt to the Vîsoca S&L association and states that, over the years, he fully repaid the debt. Moreover, Bîcu has a document, signed in 2011 by Iurie Codreanu, the executive director of the association, which shows that Bîcu has no debts to the association, saying that someone is pursuing certain interests by accusing him.  

Iurie Codreanu, however, says that the document presented by Efim Bîcu is a little bit false. He claims that he knows how that document was signed. Codreanu added that Bîcu did not repay the last credit taken in 2009, adding that he holds all the documents to prove in the court which credits Bîcu repaid and which he did not.

Anatolie Harabara, the second debtor of Vîsoca S&L, was mayor of Vîsoca for 10 years, from 2003 to 2013. In the meantime, he settled in Romania, and in 2008 he became the sole partner of the Trading Prices for You (PPT) Company.

Harabara owns a house in Codru, Chișinău municipality, which he donated to his son at the end of 2018. He also owns a share of the Agrovispel company and is the administrator of SA Med Tehn TT, registered in his family’s home in Chișinău.

Like Efim Bîcu, Harabara told the prosecutors that he does not admit any debt to the Vîsoca S&L association. An ordinance of the prosecutor’s office in Soroca states that Harabara has no financial obligations to the Vîsoca S&L association, nor to Iurie Codreanu.

Vera Iachimova, the third debtor to the association, is in Russia for several years now. She previously ran the company Iachimov Prim, registered in 2005, but liquidated in the meantime.

“I will be able to return the money to the people when the persons who owe to the association will repay, that’s it,” concluded Iurie Codreanu for ZdG.

Another corner of the country, but with the same story

The Dânceni S&L association, Ialoveni district, center of Moldova, owes over 203,000 euros (4 million lei) to its 30 members, inhabitants of the village. The people filed civil actions in the court to recover their money, but they only remained with the enforceable titles, because, before the sentence was pronounced, the persons in charge managed to dispose of all their assets, thus court decisions cannot be enforced.

Eudochia reports that many people in the village deposited their money in the so-called bank, trusting it because those who managed it were people from the village. The woman claims that she has long lost any hope that she will get her money back.

“I deposited 10,000 euros, I took the interest percentages a few times and then, I do not know what they had there. They kept hiding, they closed the branch. Condrea (the director of Dânceni S&L) baptized my son, we were like relatives. I knew the cashier, Tania, she is from the same village, and I trusted her. In 2011, when my husband died, I entreated her and she gave me 400 euros for the funeral. My husband was dead and lying in the living room while I was standing and waiting in her yard to be given the money. After that, I never received any money,” reports Eudochia Șarco, aged 70, from the village of Dânceni, who in 2008 deposited her money at the Dânceni S&L.

“My husband is dead for nine years, but he told me years before that we wouldn’t get anything back. There is nothing I want from them anymore, we lost all confidence,” says Eudochia.

Tatiana Ungureanu, whose family members have deposits in the so-called peasants’ bank, assumed the role of liquidator of the Dânceni S&L association and tried to recover the money of the people. She ended up, however, with debts of over 4,800 euros (95,000 lei) to Valeriu Popa, the insolvency administrator of the association who was hired after one of the depositors asked to initiate the insolvency process of the association to withdraw his money individually.

In some cases, unlike Vîsoca S&L case, those who ran their business on the account of the peasants did not escape punishment, although people did not get their money back yet. Tatiana Iosipoi, the accountant of the Dânceni S&L association, is sentenced to eight years in prison, and Vadim Condrea, the director of the so-called peasants’ bank, is announced in search.

Why did we reach this situation?

Efim Belousov, the lawyer who represented in the court the case of a person who could not get his savings from one of the S&L associations, considers that the state is guilty for these situations as it did not regulate the functioning of the so-called peasants’ banks.

The lawyer also mentioned that such peasants’ banks opened throughout Moldova, but no conditions were shaped in case they go bankrupt. He added that people deposit huge sums of money in exchange for a receipt that indicates that the association accepted the money, but no one checks what happens with the money next.

Igor Purici, the administrator of the Rural Financing Corporation, which was created in the late 1990s and over the years financed S&L associations, explained that such situations in which the depositors could not repay their money happened because the associations did not have trained specialists and honest people to manage the enterprise. He added that in many cases the key person possibly got hold of the money by issuing false contracts instead of registering the sources attracted to the association.

Veaceslav Ioniță, an economy expert, believes that the people who deposit their savings in these associations are, in fact, facing an unregulated system, and serious problems are just about to follow.

He said the depositors to the S&L Associations are not sufficiently protected, and there are no mechanisms to detect abuse or mismanagement. He added that neither the National Commission for Financial Market nor the state has the tools to monitor microcredit institutions across the country.

He states that this is a system crisis and the situation must be resolved at the level of the National Commission for Financial Market and at the level of the Consumer Protection Agency, for which a legal framework is needed and the Commission is to monitor these associations later.

A state institution explains the S&L associations’ situation in the country

Asked by ZdG, the National Commission for Financial Market declared that initially the S&L associations did not inspire trust, and in order to stimulate the acceptance of the deposits, as well as in order to develop the system of associations, no restrictions were imposed upon their activity, all the associations having the right to accept savings deposits.

Alina Cebotariov, head of the General Directorate of Federal Credit in the National Commission for Financial Market, mentioned that the S&L associations were imposed restrictions only in 2007, when a Law on them was adopted.

Today, 273 S&L associations are active in Moldova. Over the years, the National Commission for Financial Market revoked the license from over 200 associations, and serious violations of the legislation were detected in the activity of as many as 20 associations.

Daniela Calmîș

Foto: Igor Ionescu, 

Video: Igor Ionescu,