Minister of Justice Fadei Nagachevski said the Public Property Agency last September filed a lawsuit against SRL Avia-Invest to have the contract for the concession of the Chisinau International Airport nullified. However, after the ministry managed by Olesea Stamate made procedural mistakes, the court offered 20 more days for removing these. As a result, four months were lost, IPN reports.

Fadei Nagachevski stated that the suit was prepared by the ministry of justice led by Olesea Stamate. “I do not challenge the competence of Misses Stamate, but... If I do not challenge the competence, suspicions of bad intention appear. Or not?” the minister asked through a posting on Facebook.

According to him, the Ministry will now work with the Public Property Agency so that the case is examined in court and is solved in favor of the state.

Operations and management of the Chisinau International Airport were transferred to Avia Invest under a private-public partnership model in November 2013, whereupon a six-year investment program was unveiled. Ever since Avia Invest won the 49-year concession for the Chisinau International Airport in 2013, there have been suspicions of wrongdoing regarding the transparency of the company’s shareholding structure and funding.

At the end of last December, it became known that NR Investments Ltd gave up purchasing a 95% shareholding in Avia Invest. The latter later informed that Russian businessman Andrei Goncharenko became the new beneficiary of Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd that owns 95% of Avia-Invest.