As from 2020 until present, the prosecutors completed the investigation into 12 episodes of the bank fraud. In the criminal cases that were remitted to court, 17 persons have been charged, including the former president of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc and ex-MP Vladimir Andronachi. Details were provided by the administration of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) in a press club meeting, IPN reports.

APO chief Veronica Dragalin said that one of the 12 cases was sent to court in 2020, six cases were remitted in 2021, two cases – last year and three cases, one of which features Vlad Plahotniuc – this year.

Recently, the prosecutors received confirmation from Switzerland that a villa whose effective beneficiary is Vlad Plahotniuc was “frozen” in the property register of this state. “This property was bought with Plahotniuc’s money in 2012 for about US$26 million. The owners cannot sell this asset. If Plahotniuc is convicted in the case that was already remitted to court, the authorities will be able to recover the damages, including with money for this villa,” stated Veronica Dragalin.

According to the official, the property that has been sequestrated so far in the bank fraud cases was estimated at about 7.5 billion lei. Some 20-30% of these possessions are situated abroad and Plahotniuc and Ilan Shor are beneficiaries of most of these assets.

Prosecutors are making effort to sequestrate more possessions so as to recover the damages. But this will be possible only after the courts pass judgments.