About US$ 70 billion from Russian banks were laundered through the agency of Moldovan courts of law and banks in 2010-2014, using illegal court judgements passed in cases centering on alleged debts. In the period, the surveillance and prosecution authorities subdued by the political elites intentionally ignored the suspicious activities, while the Constitutional Court and Parliament approved legislative amendments and decisions to facilitate money laundering, says a study of the Russian Laundromat conducted by Watchdog.md Community and Transparency International Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, Sergiu Tofilat of Watchdog.md, one of the authors of the study, said that even if Moldovan investigation officers assert they identified US$ 20 billion of a suspicious origin, the publicly available evidence shows US$ 70 billion was actually laundered. No person from the surveillance and prosecution authorities has been convicted so far. On the contrary, responsible persons were recently promoted at the Constitutional Court.
Sergiu Tofilat said statistical reports show a rise in the transfers from the CIS states to Moldovan banks in 2010-2014. Transfers totaled US$ 80 billion, with 94.4% of these coming from Russia. They significantly exceeded the financial flows from real economic activities, such as exports and personal remittances to the value of US$9 billion. After the Russian Laundromat scheme was implemented, the annual financial flows from the CIS states in 2014 decreased considerably, from US$ 21 billion to US$ 3.2 billion. In a response, the National Bank of Moldova said the suspicious transactions refer to interbank operations with deposits, loans and operations with derivative financial instruments. On the other hand, the Service for the Prevention and Combating of Mooney Laundering considers the given suspicious transactions form part of the Russian Laundromat scheme implemented through Moldindconbank. The Service fined this bank 4.3 million lei.
Public policy expert Ștefan Gligor stated the survey revealed that the bodies specialized in the counteracting of money laundering and supervision of the implementation of the law by judges didn’t do their job. “We have US$ 70 billion that transited the Republic of Moldova and they ignored these operations during all these years,” he noted.
Transparency International Moldova executive director Lilia Carasciuc said there was a chain of considerable crimes. “US$ 20 billion is also a very large sum for Moldova, but US$ 70 billion is the Gross Domestic Product of the Republic of Moldova for over ten years. The competent bodies couldn’t have omitted such large-scale transactions,” she stated, noting the competent bodies acted this way because they were accomplices to these frauds. Lilia Carasciuc added the appetite for easy gains when you control the state institutions, including the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Council of Magistracy, the National Anticorruption Center and the National Bank of Moldova, increases limitlessly. Moreover, instead of being held accountable, these persons are promoted to higher posts.
