Vlad Batrîncea, the executive secretary of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) and deputy speaker of the Parliament says he will challenge in court the act of the National Integrity Authority (ANI), which found the existence of a substantial unjustified difference between income and expenditure, in the amount of over 700,000 lei, following the wealth control for 2019 initiated on the basis of a complaint.

According to a press release on the PSRM’s official website, socialist Vlad Batrîncea claims that the ANI’s act of finding “is an act based solely on subjective perceptions and not on factual and legal circumstances”, and that “the basic purpose of this action, is the media attack” against him and the Socialist Party team.

“We have examined the so-called ANI’s act of finding and have established that it is an act based solely on subjective perceptions and not on factual and legal circumstances. (…) I have never concealed and do not intend to conceal my wealth. Everything I have is in plain sight and is declared according to law.

I categorically state that I do not live a life of luxury, I live modestly, I do not have bank accounts and I do not own cars. The apartment I live in is the only property I own and for which I still have to pay the mortgage for many years to come. (…) I am sure that the basic purpose of this action is the media attack against me and the PSRM team. (…) I will defend the truth in court”, the statement on the official PSRM website reads.

The National Integrity Authority (ANI) claims that it found the existence of a substantial unjustified difference between income and expenditure, in the amount of over 700 000 lei, following the control of wealth for 2019 initiated on the basis of a complaint. According to the ANI’s statement, the unjustified difference in the declaration of wealth for 2019 was generated by the purchase of an apartment. The undeclared wealth was estimated at 713,924 lei (around 36,340 euros).

Thus, ANI claims that it will initiate the procedure to collect the amount of the unjustified wealth for the benefit of the state or its confiscation. At the same time, according to ANI, within a maximum of five days from the date when the act of finding becomes final, the competent bodies are referred to “with a view to dismissal from the public office in question”.

“Mr Vlad Batrîncea shall be deprived of the right to hold office as a Member of Parliament, as well as any other office of public dignity, with the exception of other elective offices, for a period of three years from the date of termination of his mandate or from the date of the final and irrevocable judgment confirming the existence of unjustified wealth, with entry in the State Register of persons prohibited from holding public office or public dignity”, the ANI’s statement of finding states.

The ANI’s act of finding may be challenged at the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 30 days of its issuance.

After the 2021 parliamentary elections, ZdG wrote that Batrîncea has always indicated modest income, even though he is one of the most generous sponsors of the PSRM during all electoral campaigns. For 2013 and 2014, he indicated an income of about 85 thousand lei, but donated to the PSRM in the 2014 elections about 90 thousand lei, which is all he had earned in two years. A year later, for the local elections, Batrîncea paid into the party’s budget about 82 thousand lei, while reporting a salary of 157 thousand lei. In 2017, he had income of about 205 thousand lei and financially supported his party leader Igor Dodon in the presidential election campaign with 74 thousand lei.

In the declaration of assets and interests for 2021, the socialist declares only an official income of 266 thousand lei from the Parliament and an apartment purchased in 2019, whose cadastral value indicated is 890 thousand lei. Batrîncea also declares a debt of 500 thousand lei, a loan contracted in 2019, but does not indicate any movable property.

The firm in his mother’s old apartment

Batrîncea is listed as the founder and director of “DIVLAS – COM” SRL, specialising in the retail sale of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. The company, founded in 2004 and in the process of liquidation since August 2020, does not appear in any of the MP’s asset declarations.

The Socialist had previously stated that he did not own any company, but ZdG found that “DIVLAS – COM” Ltd. has its legal address in an apartment that belonged to his mother between 1999 and 2005. She later sold the property, but the company kept its legal address there.

In “DIVLAS – COM” Ltd., the socialist is associated with Dmitri Neliubin, who in turn manages the company “Termo Inox Grup” Ltd., which is licensed in the construction of engineering buildings, technical and sanitary installations and networks, reconstruction, consolidation and restoration. According to financial reports, in 2017, “Termo Inox Grup” SRL had a turnover of over 4.5 million lei and a profit of over one million lei. In 2019, the company had revenues of over 2.7 million lei and losses of over 308 thousand lei.

Decorated by Dodon for the “formation of civil society”

The MP has always been noted for his aggressive behaviour, with chauvinist and xenophobic overtones, especially towards Romanians. At one of the Parliament sessions in March 2016, he tore up the map of Romania, saying that in school they teach the history of Romania, not Moldova. In February 2015, Batrîncea launched a legislative initiative that would prohibit dignitaries from holding dual citizenship, namely Romanian citizenship, even though several of his faction colleagues hold Romanian citizenship.

A report by the Genderoc-M association says that eight PSRM deputies, including Batrincea, initiated a draft amendment to a law on the protection of children in which the authors defined homosexuality as “a sexual perversion, constituting sexual attraction to individuals of the same sex, pederasty, sexual inversion”. In February 2018, then-President Igor Dodon awarded Vlad Batrîncea the “Order of Labour” for “outstanding merits in сonsolidating the statehood of Moldova, substantial contribution to the formation of civil society and prodigious activity in the social sphere”.

In June 2020, his party colleague Ștefan Gațcan accused Vlad Bătrîncea and Corneliu Furculiță of intimidating and threatening him “under the bridge at the Telecentre (a district of the Moldovan capital)”, after he announced he was leaving the party. In July 2020, Batrîncea was denounced to the General Prosecutor’s Office by MP Iurie Reniță, for “intentional slander, defamation and knowingly false denunciation”, after the former had accused Reniță of having been involved, when he was Moldova’s ambassador to Romania, in the sale of cigarettes in the neighbouring country. Iurie Reniță told ZdG that the prosecutor’s office had not taken any action on his denunciation.

Vlad Batrîncea was nominated for the post of deputy speaker of parliament by the Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS). He will continue his work in this post from the previous legislature. Batrîncea started his political and party activity within the PCRM, on whose lists he also participated in the early parliamentary elections of 2010, but did not enter the legislature. In 2011, he followed Igor Dodon and joined the PSRM. Batrîncea has rapidly risen with the socialists. Within two years, he became the party’s executive secretary, then, in 2014, he entered Parliament and has held his seat until today.