The National Anticorruption Center is investigating a new scheme of corruption through which driver’s licenses were issued fraudulently. About 100 persons got a driver’s license without being tested in accordance with the existing regulations for sums ranging from €500 and €2,000 that they paid to employees of the Public Services Agency and intermediaries, IPN reports.

The money paid by the applicants was distributed between the group members. The Center’s officers carried out over 30 searches. A week ago, a driving instructor was remanded in custody for 72 hours and, when being questioned, he related how the scheme worked and gave the names of the functionaries of the Public Services Agency who ensured that those who paid bribe took the exams. An employee of the Agency was arrested in the afternoon of January 28. More searches are being performed at the Agency today.

The investigative actions are taken in a number of criminal cases started over influence peddling, active and passive corruption. Those to blame face up to ten years in jail, a fine and ban on holding public posts for a period.

For its part, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that an inhabitant of Drochia district was sentenced to six years in jail on 30 episodes of influence peddling. In January-August last year, the person, saying that he has influence on officials of the Transport Registration and Driver Licensing Sections in northern Moldova, asked and received €15,200 and 10,040 lei from 30 persons for helping them pass the driving tests. Even if they paid the money, the applicants didn’t get driver’s licenses and therefore denounced the illegalities of the man.