The National Anticorruption Center said two companies, one of which is managed by two persons related to politician Vlad Filat, implemented a scheme by which they took out loans to the value of over 50 million lei from Banca de Economii (BEM) and afterward only staged a fake repayment, leaving a gap in the bank’s budget, IPN reports.

Anticorruption prosecutor Adriana Betisor told a news conference that the four persons arrested on July 15, who run the companies involved in the scheme to steal money from Banca de Economii, were charged and an application to put them under arrest for 30 days was submitted to court.

Bogdan Zumbreanu, head of the National Anticorruption Center’s General Prosecution Division, said the materials found during the searches were added to the money laundering case. There were discovered stamps of the companies by which money obtained illegally from BEM was transited. “This shows that the persons are involved in the banking fraud. There were also found passwords to foreign bank accounts, which were managed from Moldova, and summons issued by the Romanian authorities that are investigating in parallel the activity of these persons in Romania,” he stated.

He also said that there were identified documents showing that a witness in this case was monitored by the Moldovan authorities. The Prosecutor’s Office will start a separate criminal case to determine if it wasn’t abuse of power in this case.

On July 15, the anticorruption prosecutors and officers arrested four persons, among whom Vlad Filat’s relatives. Vlad Filat said the fact that such actions are taken in the full swing of the negotiations on the formation of the new ruling alliance is not accidental, but considers that his relatives and their colleagues will prove their innocence.