The bank theft will remain topical as it is not clear how much money was actually stolen from the Moldovan banks by fraud. Political commentator Cornel Ciurea said some say the sum is equal to the state debt, while others make reference to the nonperforming loans. The opinions were discussed in a public debate entitled “Why was bank theft brought back into focus?”, which was staged by IPN News Agency.

“The bank theft consisted of several stages and the first stage was the provision of nonperforming loans that was rather long, lasting since 2011 until 2014. The sum was permanently on the rise. Later, there was the guarantee of the National Bank that was converted into state debt -13.3 billion lei. The third stage was the post-fraud phase and the attempt to hide the fraud,” stated Cornel Ciurea.

He noted that the bank fraud is maximally exploited by the political class, primarily in connection with the official statements about Vladimir Plahotniuc being the beneficiary of the bank fraud, alongside the other groups.

“In the last assessment, the Platon group disappears and this is replaced by the Plahotniuc group. There is also another viewpoint - that the current political struggle was caused by the upcoming presidential elections. In my opinion, the political struggle, political destabilization and even the danger of the Chicu Government being removed were generated namely by the powerful threat witnessed by the two oligarchs I mentioned, as regards their conviction here, in Chisinau or elsewhere and the definitive end of their political presence on the Moldovan arena,” noted the expert.

Cornel Ciurea considers that after the first two groups - the Filat group and the Platon group - were penalized in the bank fraud case, the Shor group and the Plahotniuc group are to also be punished. “The investigation goes on and I consider those to blame will be penalized sooner or later, but this depends on the political cycles, not on state principles”.

The debate “Why was bank theft brought back into focus?” was the 136th edition of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.