The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) reached the conclusion that the former Romanian MP Cristian Rizea obtained the nationality of the Republic of Moldova in breach of the law, with use of false statements, IPN reports.

In a press release, the PGO says that by the notice issued by the Public Service Agency on December 28, 2017, the ex-Romanian MP was recognized as a citizen of the Republic of Moldova. This happened even if the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania, by its sentence of December 7, 2017, which became definitive on March 18, 2019, sentenced him to jail for influence peddling, money laundering and influencing of statements.

When the application to gain Moldovan nationality was filed, he hid the fact that since 2015 he had been investigated as this would have led to the rejection of his application.

According to prosecutors, the obtaining of nationality by the former Romanian MP took place illegally. The law says the nationality of the Republic of Moldova is not granted to the person or cannot be regained by the person who, during the examination of the application, serves or is to serve a jail term based on a court decision or is under investigation.

The PGO took legal action based on falsification of statements that carries a fine of at most 47,500 lei or at most a year in jail and ban on holding particular posts or performing particular activities during at most five years.

By a decree issued by the President of the Republic of Moldova on November 2, 2020, Cristian Rizea was deprived of Moldovan nationality.