Vlad Plahotniuc’s godson acquitted in the case of blackmail and interference in the prosecution of the founder of a real estate company

Dorin Damir, the godson of former PDM leader Vladimir Plahotniuc, has been acquitted in the case of blackmail and interference in the course of justice and criminal prosecution against the founder of the real estate company Pro Imobil, who accused Dorin Damir in the summer of 2021 of alleged involvement in the “2017 raider attack” against his company. The judgment was handed down by the Chisinau Court, Buiucani seat, at the end of December 2022 and was published on Tuesday, 31 January 2023.

The magistrates examined in the court session the case, by which, on 02 June 2021, Damir Dorin allegedly blackmailed Vladislav Musteață, the founder of the company “Pro Imobil”, through his lawyer, with threats of physical violence against him and his family, so that he would withdraw his complaint and claims against him: “Having been heard in the court hearing, the defendant Damir Dorin did not admit the imputed guilt and explained to the court that he does not know Musteață Vladislav and they have never met,” according to the sentence.

“(…) The court finds that the acts of the accused Dorin Damir do not meet the elements of the offence provided for in Article 189(1) of the Criminal Code – blackmail, i.e. the request to commit other actions of a financial nature, threatening with violence the person and his relatives, as well as the offence provided for in Article 303(1) of the Criminal Code. (2) of the Criminal Code – interference in the course of justice and criminal prosecution, i.e. interference, in any form, in the work of the criminal prosecution authorities, with the aim of preventing the rapid, complete and objective investigation of criminal case No. *, for which reasons the court will acquit the defendant on both counts”, according to the decision of the Buiucani Court of Chisinau.

In the summer of 2021, the founder of the company “Pro Imobil”, Vladislav Musteață, stated that the president of the FEA Association, Dorin Damir, through his close associate, Octavian Orheaianu, in 2017, would have imputed sums of money for “settling problems within the company”. At the same time, Musteață said he had been threatened by them with the opening of criminal cases.

The founder of the company “Pro Imobil”, Vladislav Musteață, said that, in 2019, in “the administration of the company were put people of Octavian Orheianu and relatives of Dorin Damir, whose basic purpose was to take over the business”.

At the time, Dorin Damir stated that the accusations made by the founder of “Pro Imobil”, Vladislav Musteață, were “totally unfounded”. Damir said that he did not interfere in the activity, structure and processes that took place in the company.

In March 2018, ZdG revealed that while the founder of the “Pro Imobil” brand, Vladislav Musteață, was the target of several criminal cases and was put under international search, behind the scenes several changes and transactions took place as a result of which the activity of brokering the sale/purchase of real estate was changed from the name of the company “Pro Imobil Grup” SRL – to that of a company with a similar name – “Pro Imobil Company” SRL. One of the co-founders of the new company became a young man with no previous business experience – Alexandr Petcoglo, a martial arts trainer close to Octavian Orheianu, then vice-president of the K-1 Amateur Federation of Moldova, headed by Dorin Damir, godson-in-law of former PDM president Vladimir Plahotniuc. Orheianu later took Damir’s place at the head of the federation and Petcoglo became its vice-president.

In March 2018, when ZdG first wrote about the shady moves behind the scenes of the “Pro Imobil” company, Vladislav Musteață denied that there was any connection between the files in which he figured and the change of the business’ owners, describing this as “totally irrelevant and unfounded insinuations”. In 2019, however, the founder of “Pro Imobil” spoke, officially, pronouncing names, about “people affiliated with the former regime, who became partners in the company through illegal methods”.