The direction followed by prosecutors in criminal cases concerning the bank fraud didn’t allow conducting a complex and objective investigation covering all the potential beneficiaries of the theft, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo stated in a news conference that centered on the results of the inspections carried out at the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases and the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, IPN reports.

Alexandr Stoianoglo said the audit of the materials of criminal cases revealed multiple shortcomings. “The given conclusions were also determined by the full ignorance of the position and statements of some of the persons who were directly involved in the investigated cases and the protection of others, using the procedural instruments, evidently favoring unilaterally only some of the groups of economic and political interests,” he stated.

According to him, the bank fraud case is generally rather complex and the performance of prosecutors involved in investigations will be therefore assessed after a series of procedural activities planned at the last meetings of the investigation group are carried out under the direction of the prosecutor general.

Alexandr Stoianoglo also referred to the case of financing of the Party of Socialists that was started on alleged acts of money laundering. He said that this is also large and complex. “It should be noted that the procedural activities, as of June 2016, were unplanned and inconsistent in character during over three years. Investigative actions were taken in 2016 and 2017, but no action was taken in 2018 and 2019. Interest was shown only when particular sociopolitical events started to be used by different groups of interests, including by some of the prosecutors who are ultimately responsible for the inefficiency of the investigation so far,” stated the prosecutor general.

He also said that only in November 2019, the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office intervened and ordered a group consisting of 28 prospectors and 38 investigating officers to conduct an investigation. Moreover, a separate episode featuring members of the Party of Socialists was examined by the APO. It was ordered not to take legal action, but the given order was later annulled and the investigation was resumed under major political pressure in November – December 2019. As a result, the resumed proceedings, even if this was a distinct case, were connected to the materials of the given criminal case at the start of December, in breach of the Penal Procedure Code.

Alexandr Stoianoglo also said that the Prosecutor General’s Office didn’t become involved in this criminal case if only to verify it in connection with the official application of the president of the PSRM Zinaida Grechanyi whose examination revealed those procedural violations.