The duty-free shop network controlled by Ilan Shor was among the first assets that law enforcement officials seized in June 2019, immediately after the former mayor of Orhei fled the country. But the ban lasted only half a year. After it was lifted, the duty-free network’s documented owners migrated several times, from local businessmen to Cypriots, Germans and Jews. Eventually, the duty-free business was taken over by a Russian bank owner domiciled in Israel, in the same town where Ilan Shor was caught on several occasions, RISE Moldova reports.

RISE Moldova has traced the ownership changes at one of Ilan Shor’s main businesses and presents key moments in the business’ history.

TRANSFER TO DFM
The DFM company was founded in late 2015 by Dufremol and for two years and a bit it did not demonstrate any economic activity. The situation changed after the transfer of control of the duty-free network.

In the first days of January 2019, less than two months before the February 24 parliamentary elections, Dufremol withdrew from DFM’s share capital and Ilona Shor, Ilan Shor’s stepmother, became the sole shareholder. She will be a partner and administrator of DFM only until June 2019, when she sells the company to a triumvirate: Alexandru Vîlcu (30%), Victor Iakovlev (30%) and Andriy Minayev (40%), the latter being a German citizen and administrator of the new acquisition.
Two contracts, with Vilcu and Yakovlev, Ilona Shor signed personally. It was Friday, June 14, 2019, the day when power in Chisinau shifted from Vladimir Plahotniuc and the Democratic Party to the coalition between the Party of Socialists and the ACUM Bloc, an event following which Ilan Shor “illegally crossed the state border,” as prosecutors would later announce. Thus, the last contract, with Minayev, will be signed on Monday, 17 June 2019, but not by Ilona Șor, but by Nina Guranda, who represented her in the transaction.

NEW PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS
The changes in DFM’s ownership structure continued in the following years. Thus, the Cyprus-based company was the sole shareholder until last summer, when DFM returned to the ownership of Andriy Minayev, who, since June 2019, is also the manager of the duty-free chain.

Minayev became the owner again after the termination of the sale and purchase agreement on 24 December 2019, on the grounds that Hamstelia Limited did not transfer to him €635 thousand, i.e. the consideration for the 100% stake in DFM.

December 2021. Arie Geler, a citizen of Israel, buys 90% of DFM’s share capital at a price of one million euros, money that went into an account opened by Minayev at a bank in the Republic of Moldova. The transfer was made from the Russian Federation, from an account Geler holds at Sinko-Bank, a financial institution he also controls, according to court decisions.

Geler was represented in the transaction by one Igor Shmoish. A person with the same name and date of birth was an attaché of the police and the Ministry of Public Security of Israel for the CIS member states and the Baltic States, and during 2016-2020, he had at least three official visits to the Republic of Moldova, during which he met with the heads of the General Inspectorate of Police.