The Prosecutor General’s Office started one more criminal case against the former chief of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) Viorel Morari. According to Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, Morari was already questioned and is suspected of unjust enrichment and money laundering in extremely large amounts by using the position. The property that he supposedly obtained illegally exceeds 20 million lei in value, IPN reports.
Alexandr Stoianoglo said the criminal case was started based on journalistic articles pointing to the disproportion existing between the revenues declared by the former chief of the APO and the real financial situation of the members of his family and relatives. It is suspected that the acts of money laundering were committed transnationally through the agency of members of his family and other close persons, including legal entities.
The prosecutor general told a news conference that the persons who founded and managed “Irarom-Grup” SRL (Morari, read inversely), in 2013-2019 invested in entrepreneurial activities larger amounts than the official revenues. The mother and brother of prosecutor Morari founded and, respectively, managed this firm that was registered with the State Registration Chamber of Moldova in 2013.
Even if the prosecutor’s mother in 2013 – 2014 officially earned about 2,500 lei, in 2014 she performed nine transactions to deposit money into the firm’s bank account, totaling 3.8 million lei. In 2014, the enterprise built and put into operation a filling station in the native village of the prosecutor. The value of the facility was about 3.5 million lei.
Also, without having other sources of income than the officially indicated ones, from which they earned much lower amounts, the prosecutor’s parents in 2012 – 2019 bought four buildings in the municipality of Chisinau estimated at over €179,000. In 2013-2019, Morari’s mother came into possession of 25 pieces of farmland and construction lots with a total area of 18 hectares, two houses and annexes with a total area of 192 square meters. In 2015-2018, his brother purchased and was donated 87 pieces of farmland and construction lots with a total area of 45 ha, a house that was 93 square meters in area and other property.
According to Alexandr Stoianoglo, the National Integrity Authority examined the revenues and property of Viorel Morari, but didn’t identify irregularities even if the information presented by the Security and Intelligence Service and the Service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering indicated the opposite. The actions of the members of Viorel Morari’s family and of SRL “Irarom-Grup” are investigated within another criminal case started over money laundering.
At the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Assets Recovery Agency is carrying out investigations so as to recover the crime assets.
Alexandr Stoianoglo noted that the former head of the APO is also involved in other criminal proceedings managed by the PGO about which information will be provided later.
Viorel Morari started his career as a prosecutor in 2002. After 2007, he had held executive posts at the APO, while since 2016 until recently had headed the APO.
