Additional effort should be made to bring the authors of fraud schemes in the banking, financial and insurance sectors of Moldova to justice, said members of the Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee (CCIA), who presented the Russian version of their first report titled “The Offshore Republic”: Review of factors leading to systemic fraud and money laundering in Moldova’s banking, financial and insurance sectors (published in Romanian in July 2022).

In a news conference hosted by IPN, the Committee’s co-chair James Wasserstrom said the report depicts the failures of a number of state institutions to prevent stealing in these sectors and their capture by oligarchs and corrupt people. The report presents the first part of the work done by the Committee. The first report was made public in July this year, while the next report will be published in February 2023. The second part of the effort, which is the most important one, centers on the removal of flaws. This will include the monitoring of implementation of recommendations.

The report details the multiple ways in which the legislative amendments, dubious appointment of institution heads, lack of real independence of oversight institutions and absence of stronger actions following warning signals led to what is called “state capture”.

The report’s recommendations provide clear, specific and actionable activities with respect to reforms and the much-needed legislative amendments regarding the prevention of fraud schemes commonly known as
“Raider Attacks”, “Laundromat”, and “Theft of a Billion”.

Founded by presidential decree in June 2021, the Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee is a joint independent international and national body. Its main purpose is to analyze systemic corruption issues that cut across Moldovan institutions and improve implementation of anti-corruption measures by the relevant parties.

The Committee performs research based on reliable facts and sources, then publishes its recommendations to optimize the effectiveness of the efforts of the Republic of Moldova in leading the fight against corruption. Subsequently, the CCIA assesses the implementation of measures by state actors and stakeholders and renders the findings public.

Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.