Ghenadie Tanas, head of the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the National Anticorruption Center, who was recently called from the rostrum of the Parliament “the National Anticorruption Center millionaire in euros”, officially owns about 100 hectares of agricultural land, and his brother and mother own several parking lots belonging to a block of flats on Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău. In 2020, the NAC employee moved into his parents’ apartment, purchased in that block ten years before, and bought a new Skoda Superb, which cost him the full salary and pension he received from the National Anticorruption Center that year. However, the control on his wealth and personal interests, initiated by the National Integrity Authority found no faults with it. Ghenadie Tanas’s mother and brother are also involved in a series of real estate transactions, linked to a friend employed at the National Anticorruption Center.

ZdG has already written about the transactions of the Tanas family. Following the statements made in Parliament and after verifying the information on the Tanas family’s wealth revealed from the parliamentary rostrum, ZdG presents new details about the apartments, houses, commercial buildings, agricultural lands of the NAC employee as well as about his relatives’ business.

Victoria BORODIN

Ghenadie Tanas has been working for the National Anticorruption Center for many years. He was a criminal investigation officer and head of a department at the Criminal Investigation Directorate, and in March 2013 he became the head of the NAC Northern Territorial Directorate. In 2019, he was appointed head of the National Anticorruption Center Criminal Investigation Directorate shortly after the Parliament elected Ruslan Flocea director of the National Anticorruption Center.

Tanas’s promotion to the head of the Directorate which manages the entire process of prosecution at National Anticorruption Center came despite the fact that in 2017, ZdG wrote that the official owned movable and immovable property exceeding his declared wealth and that he practiced usury, lending people tens of thousands euros.

From the parliamentary rostrum, however, it was announced that Ghenadie Tanas and his family members own another real estate, purchased over the past 10 years, during which period Tanas worked for the National Anticorruption Center.

Accusations against the National Anticorruption Center employee coming from the parliamentary rostrum

“In 2009, the anti-corruption officer’s mother, a teacher in a simple village school, bought a 60- square-meter house in Ungheni. In 2010, his father, a music teacher, bought a 47-square-meter apartment in Ungheni and another 100-square-meter apartment in Chișinău. Subsequently, in 2014 and 2015, the oligarch’s father and brother bought 24 parking lots belonging to the same block. In 2010, his mother bought another house in Călărași, while his brother came into possession of a house on Eminescu Street in Ungheni. In 2012, he also bought a 50-square-meter apartment on Boico Street in Ungheni, and the following years, his brother bought an 89-square-meter house and two commercial buildings on Musatov Street in Ungheni, 83 and 129 square meters each,” the deputy Andrian Cheptonar declared from the parliamentary rostrum on November 18, referring to Ghenadie Tanas, head of the National Anticorruption Center Investigation Directorate.

According to the deputy, Ghenadie Tanas, together with his mother and brother, owns about 500 hectares of agricultural land.

“In addition to all the above-mentioned real estate, Ghena’s parents own 26 plots of land with a total area of 154 hectares. Ghena owns 373 agricultural plots in his own name, with a total area of 350 hectares, thus a total of 500 hectares in the name of an anti-corruption officer. As for cash, a year ago, the person in question turned to energy consulting companies inquiring where to invest half a million euros, in solar panels or wind turbines,” the deputy said.

ZdG has verified the information revealed by the deputy and presents details on the apartments, houses, commercial buildings, and agricultural land of the National Anticorruption Center employee and his relatives’ business.

In 2020, he moved to his parents’ apartment

In September 2010, the National Anticorruption Center employee’s parents, former teachers at the school in Petreşti, Ungheni, from where they raised their annual salary of several tens of thousands of lei, bought a 100.5 square-meter apartment in a block of flats on Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău. In September 2015, Ghenadie Tanas bought a 63.1 square-meter apartment in the same block of flats. However, Tanas did not live in it and preferred to rent out the property, increasing his income by about 139,000 lei in the years 2016-2017.

In December 2017, Tanas sold the real estate, and in January 2018, he bought a 69.4 square-meter apartment for 400,000 lei (20,000 euros) in a block of flats on Națională Street in Ungheni but sold it a year later. The declared transaction was worth 35,000 euros (700,000 lei), ie almost 300,000 lei more than the value indicated at the purchase.

In 2020, based on a use contract, Ghenadie Tanas becomes the owner of the 100.5 square-meter apartment on Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău, formerly registered in the name of his parents.

The NAC employee’s mother and brother and their “business” with parking spaces

Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău has been a real “business center” for the Tanas family for many years. ZdG identified the 24 parking lots purchased by Ghenadie Tanas’ relatives.

According to the data, on May 5, 2015, Adriano Tanas, National Anticorruption Center employee’s brother, at that time a criminal investigation officer at the Ungheni Police Inspectorate, bought 12 parking lots, with a total area of ​​215.2 square meters. He first declared the parking lots in his statement of wealth and personal interests for 2017, indicating the price of 750,000 lei. Three days later, on May 8, 2015, Iulia Tanas, their mother, purchased nine parking lots, with a total area of ​​166.3 square meters. In September 2016, Adriano Tanas buys two parking lots more at the cost of about 133,000 lei, and three years later, in September 2019, their mother buys another parking lot. In total, Adriano Tanas and Iulia Tanas own 24 parking lots, worth about 1,5 million lei. The parking lots are rented monthly to the tenants of that block, built by the Glorinal company.

Also in 2015, Ghenadie Tanas’ brother and his wife bought an 83.2 square-meter store and a 129.4 meter warehouse in Ungheni, both built on 13 hectares of land. In August 2021, Adriano Tanas split the three properties, and a month later he sold the land and the warehouse. In 2012, although he did not own the property, Adriano took a mortgage loan of 100,000 euros and pledged it.

In the years 2015-2016, NAC employee’s brother purchased goods whose worth exceeded the income declared by him. According to Adriano Tanas’ declarations of wealth and personal interests, submitted in 2015, he received 8,000 lei as salary, and in 2016 he raised a salary of 60,000 lei, while his wife, employed at the Petreşti Health Center, earned 30,000 lei. Also in 2016, Ghenadie Tanas’ brother sold a Toyota Prius for 9,800 euros.

Real estate transactions between the relatives of the National Anticorruption Center employee and his friend Creciun

In 2010-2014, Adriano Tanas also owned a deteriorated house on a plot of land on M. Eminescu Street in Ungheni. According to the data from the Cadastre, the land and the construction on it belonged to the local public administration. In 2008, a certain Ghenadie Covaliu obtained ownership, and two years later the NAC employee’s brother bought the property.

In the same 2010, Adriano Tanas and his wife bought from Ion Covaliu an 88.6 square-meter house on Băilești Street in Ungheni. As in the previous case, the property belonged to the local public administration. On June 27, 2011, Adriano Tanas transferred the building to his name, and three days later, Ion Covaliu became the owner of the property again. Vitalie Creciun, a close friend of the Tanas brothers, as Ghenadie Tanas acknowledged to ZdG in 2017, bought the house two months later. Since September 2014, the house and the land have become Ion Covaliu’s property again.

Vitalie Creciun was also involved in a real estate transaction with the National Anticorruption Center officer’s mother. In June 2010, Iulia Tanas bought a 99.7 square-meter house on 0.07 hectares in Călărași, which since 2002 belonged to a certain Gheorghe Jornea. In July 2009, the goods became the property of Vitalie Creciun, and half a year later, Gheorghe Jornea became the owner of the property again. Tanas’ mother purchased the property from him and in June 2017, the house becomes, again, the property of Gheorghe Jornea.

Another house, which was declared from the rostrum of the Parliament as belonging to the Tanas family, is located on Solidaritatii Street in Ungheni. ZdG found that Ghenadie Tanas’ mother purchased the 59.3 square-meter property in April 2009. In October 2011, she sold the house to a villager of hers.

In recent years, the Tanas brothers’ parents owned at least three apartments in Ungheni located on Ion Creangă Street and Ghenadie Crestiuc Street, and Adriano Tanas had an apartment in a block of flats on Boico Street.

100 hectares of officially owned agricultural land

It was also stated from the rostrum of the Parliament that Ghenadie Tanas owns, registered in his name, about 350 hectares of agricultural land, most of which was purchased in April 2021. According to the declarations of wealth and interests submitted by Ghenadie Tanas, he bought no less than 93 hectares of agricultural land in 2017 and it cost him a little over 1 million lei. It should be noted that he bought 40 hectares of agricultural land in the first three months of 2017 at the cost of about 463,000 lei, almost as much as the income officially declared by him for the years 2015-2016.

Also in 2017, the head of the National Anticorruption Center Criminal Investigation Directorate managed to return to his brother Adriano Tanas, who in 2019 became head of the Detention and Escort Service of Ungheni Police Inspectorate, a two-part loan amounting to 58,000 euro, the equivalent of 1,2 million lei. However, the declarations of wealth and interests submitted by his brother, Adriano Tanas, do not contain information about the loan, nor about the repayment of the loan.

Ghenadie Tanas declared official revenues for 2017 in the amount of about 2,2 million lei. The state employee claims to have received over 1,3 million lei as donations at his wedding, held in September in a luxury restaurant in Chișinău.

The car he bought cost as much as his last year wages from the National Anticorruption Center

The state employee included in the declaration of wealth and personal interests for 2020 a total income of 511,000 lei from salary, pension, and allowances, and his wife, an employee of the Public Services Agency, raised a salary of about 118,000 lei. The same year, Ghenadie Tanas sold his brother the car he bought in 2011 on lease and bought another one, also a Skoda Superb, manufactured in 2019, which he claims is worth 500,000 lei. As for the real estate, Ghenadie Tanas declared a 60.8 square-meter apartment, purchased in 2019 for 22,000 euros, as well as a 100 square-meter apartment on Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău, the owners of which are his parents. Tanas also declared the 93 hectares of agricultural land purchased in 2017.

The modest fortune of the NAC employee’s brother

In turn, Adriano Tanas, who in the meantime became head of the Detention and Escort Service of Ungheni Police Inspectorate, declares an income from salary and allowances in the amount of 139,000 lei for 2020, and his wife received a salary of 14,000 lei. He also declares two 1.2 hectares of agricultural land donated in 2019, a house and a garage, donated in 2008, as well as 14 parking lots on Natalia Gheorghiu Street in Chișinău. He also declares the car he bought from his brother.

In 2017, ZdG wrote about the wealth and transactions of the Tanas family. The National Integrity Authority and the National Anticorruption Center found no violations.

In 2017, Ghenadie Tanas became the subject of a ZdG investigation entitled “The Transactions of the National Anticorruption Center Moneylender.” ZdG wrote then that Ghenadie Tanas owned movable and immovable property whose value exceeded his declared income and that he practiced usury, lending tens of thousands of euros to several people. In at least one case documented by ZdG, Tanas used his mother, a teacher, as a creditor, and in at least four cases, Tanas went to court to force the debtors to return approximately 60,000 euros. The disputes in which Tanas was involved are not found in his declaration of wealth and property.

ZdG also wrote that the Ungheni residents then stated that Ghenadie Tanas, through Vitalie Creciun, allegedly owned several businesses and buildings, including two buildings on Ghenadie Crestiuc Street and Ferghiară Street in Ungheni, built by Lativex SRL. The building on Crestiuc Street houses the Barin pizzeria, registered with the company Lativex SRL, and the one on Feroviară Street is offered on lease to the instrumente.md store.

Lativex SRL was founded in 2004 by Eugenia Bectoraş, a retired woman who lives in a modest apartment in Ungheni. Bectoraş has a share of 99.62 percent of this SRL, and Vitalie Creciun owns 0.37 percent. The registered office of the company is in the pensioner’s apartment. “My son is in construction. I gave him all my life earnings,” said the woman in 2017. Vitalie Creciun, minority partner and administrator of Lativex, claimed in 2017 that the two constructions had been built on the savings accumulated by his family during several years and that Gheorghe Tanas was not involved in any way.

Following the publication of the ZdG investigation, National Anticorruption Center filed a complaint, initiated a service investigation, and two months later found “no grounds for disciplinary action against the National Anticorruption Center employee.” In 2016, the National Integrity Commission, the current National Integrity Authority, ordered the non-initiation of wealth control of Ghenadie Tanas “due to lack of solid evidence.” In March 2020, based on a notification referring to the ZdG investigation “TOP 10: Luxury cars of National Anticorruption Center officers”, the National Integrity Authority initiated a new control of Ghenadie Tanas’ wealth and personal interests for the period 2012-2020. In August 2021, the control procedure was terminated because the integrity inspector did not find a “substantial difference” between the income and expenses of the National Anticorruption Center employee and his wife.

CNA employee explains: “I can’t afford to defend myself in the press.“

Ghenadie Tanas, about his wealth: As I have said on other occasions, all my wealth has been acquired legally. I have officially declared all income and property. There were several speculative statements regarding my assets, which were subsequently verified both by the National Anticorruption Center Internal Security Directorate and by the National Integrity Authority. None of these entities found any divergences between my family’s income and expenses and even identified income that exceeds the expenses. It is about the income included in the non-public compartment of the declaration on wealth and personal interests. The National Integrity Authority issued the control act concluding that no inconsistencies were found. I consider it a waste of time to give the same explanations and to present the same evidence that I have provided to the National Integrity Authority since the competent authority has already given a final solution.

On the property and real estate transactions of relatives: As for other property, which has been assigned to me and my family by some public persons, I can say with certainty that they are in the zone of manipulation and speculation. To put an end to them, I requested the General Prosecutor’s Office to re-examine all those allegations that were publicly exposed. I can’t afford to defend myself in the press, getting involved in information debates, that’s why I acted in accordance with the law and the status of my office. I am not going to hide or be ashamed of the wealth I have built through work, I am ashamed to acquire goods through illicit means, which cannot be blamed on me and my family.