The administration of a national company specialized in “Work and Travel” programs is investigated for implementing a money laundering scheme by which the state was defrauded of 15 million lei. The name of the company and the period during which it worked in Moldova weren’t made public, IPN reports.

According to the National Anticorruption Center, in the period between 2010 and 2013, the company transferred over US$6 million to the accounts of an off-shore firm. The money was obtained from students who took part in the “Work and Travel” program, whom the company helped to establish relations with employers oversees, to prepare the documents needed to obtain visas and to go to the United States.

A part of the money from the accounts of the offshore firm went to pay salaries of $500 to $2,500 to the company’s employees though the pays declared at tax bodies were of at most 2,000 lei. The other money was used by the company’s managers to buy luxury cars, property and other goods.

Upon searches, the anticorruption officers and prosecutors found technical devices for managing the accounts of the offshore firm from a distance, registration documents, stamps and bank cards of the company’s employees used to receive untaxed pays. A criminal case was started over money laundering. The National Anticorruption Center is cooperating with the similar services of the U.S. in collecting more evidence in this case.