Anticorruption prosecutors summoned two of the deputy heads of the Administration Board of the National Commission for Financial Markets for being questioned within the extended investigation into the bank frauds. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, these are suspected of professional misconduct when voting modifications to the State Register of Securities. This led to the registration of the additional share issue of Banca de Economii (Savings Bank), IPN reports.
According to prosecutors, only one of the deputy heads presented himself at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office on March 21. The other one provided a medical certificate to explain his absence. Earlier, the former chief of the National Commission for Financial Markets Artur Gherman was also summoned for being questioned within the same investigation. This made depositions about the method of registering changes in the State Register of Securities following the issuing of additional shares at Banca de Economii and about the method of implementing the Supreme Court of Justice’s judgment by which the Commission’s decision to register the additional share issue was annulled.
The National Commission for Financial Markets registered the additional 16 million ordinary shares with the nominal value of 5 lei, to the total value of 80 million lei, on September 4, 2013. After the share capital was raised, the state conceded the controlling interest in Banca de Economii and this led to lack of effective control on the part of state representatives over the activity of the bank and facilitated frauds there.
The prosecutors established that the duties were inappropriately fulfilled by civil servants of the Public Property Agency, the National Commission for Financial Markets, the State Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the National Bank of Moldova and other public authorities. These improperly managed the state property and conceded the controlling interest in Banca de Economii to the private sector. As a result, the new shareholders fraudulently managed the bank and caused damage to it, endangering also the baking security of the state.
