When someone wants to help people, “they don’t drive around with black bags of cash, with millions of lei, to distribute them in a hidden way during the night,” says the chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), Veronica Dragalin. In her first appearance on TV since taking office, Dragalin gave more details about the bags seized by anti-corruption prosecutors while being distributed to finance the Shor party protests.

“We are talking about a distribution of cash in the middle of the night. If someone has the intention to help citizens (…) for example we have a lot of NGOs in Moldova that deal with several ways to help people. I think that companies or groups that help people distribute food, help, in a certain way. So they don’t drive around at night with black bags with cash, with millions of lei, to be distributed in a hidden way during the night,” Dragalin said.

She also stressed that the crime being investigated in the criminal case is illegal party financing.

Veronica Dragalin also said that prosecutors are investigating how the money arrived in Moldova and will come back with details later.

“We are not examining people who are in the street, who may have accepted 400 lei to come to the protest. We are looking through the prism of a political party’s activity. A political party can only be funded in certain ways, and the sources of funding must be declared,” the prosecutor added.

The PA chief said that some of the money that was supposed to go to the regional leaders of the political party was distributed before the lawmen intervened, and fingerprints will be analysed from some of the bags that were collected.

“It is an approximate amount of 3.5 million lei. Some of the money was found in one place, about 2.5 million lei, which was counted. The rest of the money, a large amount, also wrapped in the same way, in a black bag, was picked up from another place. The prosecutors and officers who picked up about 10 bags from the second location decided not to open them to remove the money because we will have a fingerprint forensic examination to see if it will help the investment.

We haven’t opened all the bags yet. The amount in the bags that have not been opened is approximate, and on the day that people were stopped in the act, one person still managed to distribute some of the money before being stopped. This means that an amount of money has already been passed on and has not been picked up by the prosecution group, that’s why the amount of money is approximate at the moment,” Veronica Dragalin said during a broadcast on ProTV Chisinau.

Asked about the amount of money that Ilan Shor claims the lawmen confiscated, two million more than the amount announced by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, Dragalin stressed that the exact amount will be known after the prosecutors open the packages, and for now “we do not have the final figure of the amount of money”.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) and the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) raided members and activists of the “Shor” party in several localities across the country on Thursday, 20 October. Veronica Dragalin, chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) said that a total of 55 searches were carried out.

The PA chief also said that during the searches 20 black bags with the same emblems” with district names on them were seized. In total, according to Veronica Dragalin, “about 3.5 million lei were collected from these bags”. The amounts collected include lei and dollars.

Five people detained in the past few days following raids on members and activists of the “Shor” party have been placed under pre-trial detention and 17 people under house arrest. On Saturday, October 22, the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Ciocana Branch, examined 22 requests submitted by prosecutors for the application of the preventive measure “preventive arrest” against persons involved in the “scheme of accepting the financing of the “Shor” Political Party from an organized criminal group”.

According to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), the state prosecutors will decide on the exercise of appeals within the time limit provided by law.

“At the same time, we inform that on 21 October 2022, the prosecutor of the case has appealed against the conclusion of the court whereby in respect of the defendant Tauber Marina the preventive measure “house arrest” was replaced by “provisional release under judicial supervision. The hearing of the appeal by the Chisinau Court of Appeal has been set for 25 October 2022. The arrested persons are charged with the offence of complicity in accepting party financing from an organised criminal group, an offence provided for in Article 1812 para. (5) of the Criminal Code.

If found guilty, they risk a fine of 57 500 to 92 500 lei or imprisonment for 2 to 7 years, in both cases with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or to exercise certain activities for 2 to 5 years. We will come back with further details on the criminal proceedings, including information on the amount of money found during the searches”, says a press release of the PA.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) and the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) raided members and activists of the “ȘOR” party in several localities across the country on Thursday, 20 October. Veronica Dragalin, chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), announced that during the raids 20 black bags with approximately 3.5 million lei were seized and 24 people were detained.