A former director of the Civil Aviation Authority was detained for 72 hours in a high-profile money laundering and tax fraud case. Three other persons of interest are to be questioned.

The former CAA director, who served until January 2021, is suspected of laundering particularly large amounts of money together with other former officials of the aeronautical regulator and a former Chisinau mayor, the National Anticorruption Center said.

According to Center, the four investigated persons worked for a private aviation consulting company and allegedly laundered part of their fees through offshore firms, avoiding tax. A number of the companies involved in the “suspicious transactions” are allegedly connected to money laundering operations investigated as part of the 2014 bank fraud and the so-called Laundromat case.

The former CAA director Valentin Vizant issued a statement to denounce the searches at his home as being part of a “cheap, “fabricated” and “baseless” case. Vizant said he will soon disclose the names of “those who ordered this farce” and “their intentions”.