Members of the Party of Change announced that they will file a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office concerning "acts of corruption and illegalities committed in connection with the National Hotel case". During an IPN press conference, Sergiu Tofilat, the party's vice-president, said that the complaint is essentially a mini-Kroll report, which explains the chain of events that took place. It recounts the actions of the National Anticoruption Center (CNA), of the Prosecutor's Office and of the courts and explains the role of each state institution in the scheme.
Sergiu Tofilat said that the first attempt to privatize Moldova-Tur, which owned the National Hotel, took place in 1999 by an Israeli company. The contract was cancelled because the company did not meet the required payment. Another attempt was made in 2006 by Alfa-Engineering, a company whose owners changed over the years. Eventually, the company ended up being owned by Vladimir Plahotniuc. In 2011, Plahotniuc sold 100% of his shares to Veaceslav Platon.
In 2014, Veaceslav Platon sold the hotel to Ilan Șor, while Ilan Șor paid with stolen money from the billion, Tofilat pointed out. Specifically, the money originated from a 50.8 million lei loan granted by Banca de Economii to a company owned by Ilan Șor. In January 2019, Ilan Șor sold the hotel to Anik Imobil, a company owned by Vladimir Andronachi. In August 2020, Vernon Corporation, an offshore company, became the founder of Alfa-Engineering. At least 75% of the company's shares belong to a Ukrainian citizen named Victor Canaev. Canaev is listed in several companies controlled by Andronachi.
Sergiu Tofilat further reported that in January 2019, Chișinău Municipal Council (CMC) issued an illegal resolution to lease 1.2 hectares of land to Moldova-Tur. The decision was challenged by the State Chancellery. A year later, the Court of Appeal overturned CMC's decision to lease the land. In order to keep the right to use the land, Moldova-Tur registered lease contracts and challenged the Court of Appeal decision. The City Hall also challenged the same decision. In September 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) irrevocably canceled the lease, meaning that City Hall was obliged to revise the boundaries of the land. According to Sergiu Tofilat, as of September 2020, the City Hall has done nothing in this regard and did not execute the CSJ decisions, which was also supposed to revoke the building permits.
In 2021, the City Hall organized public consultations concerning the demolition of the hotel and the construction of a 128 thousand square meter multi-purpose complex, while the right of lease was cancelled earlier. At the request of Deputy Mayor Victor Chironda to investigate the state of affairs, the Prosecutor's Office sent the investigation case to the CNA, while CNA sent it back to City Hall. As a result, the CMC sacked Deputy Mayor Victor Chironda. Sergiu Tofilat said that he believes that there is a group of officials from different institutions acting in the interests of the real beneficiaries of the National Hotel, namely Vladimir Andronachi. Additionally, City Hall did not initiate any investigation in order to determine which officials were involved in allegedly illegal activities.
According to the Party of Change president, Ștefan Gligor, City Hall is knowingly acting as an accomplice in this criminal scheme. He added that he has seen in recent years how local authorities, law enforcement bodies, central public institutions that were meant to investigate this corruption case and protect state property pretend that nothing has happened. The National Hotel case is a symbol of Chisinau Municipality's corruption, which harms the interests of the municipality and of the state by millions, said Ștefan Gligor.
