The National Bank of Moldova received the first progress report of the company Kroll, which is investigating the large fraud committed in the banking sector of Moldova. As a result of this fraud, three Moldovan banks - Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank – collapsed at the end of 2014, IPN reports.
According to a press release of the National Bank, it is the first stage of the two-year investigation into the transactions performed by the three banks in 2012-2014. A plan for recovering the assets is to be launched soon. Kroll confirmed the initial National Bank’s finding that the transactions were performed within a coordinated fraud and works to collect evidence to meet the highest standards of the international courts of law.
Pursuing the goal of proving the damage and recovering the funds, the Kroll team identified, stored and analyzed thousands of documents obtained with the support of the central banks of different countries and other sides. These will represent the main evidence to prove the fraud that caused the collapse of the three Moldovan banks.
Kroll concentrated initially on the period between May and November 2014 because particularly in this period the loans released to affiliated persons by the three banks of Moldova rose over two times to 13 billion lei on November 24, 2014. The aim of the long-term investigation is to recover the stolen money and to identify all those who consciously took part in and profited from the fraud, including the parties and financial institutions from Moldova.
The first stage of the investigation confirmed the initial conclusions reported when the previous preliminary investigation was completed and discovered clear evidence about the crucial involvement of Ilan Shor and the companies and persons associated with him (together “The Shor Group”) in the given fraud. In particular, the information that was collected and analyzed by Kroll confirmed that the Shor Group was involved in the purchase of shares in the three Moldovan banks in 2012-2014, directly controlled the important decisions at the three banks, including about the provision of ‘loans’ in favor of interconnected companies that had no intention of repaying these, created a network of companies through which the funds obtained by fraud were stolen and laundered, and obtained a considerable part of the appropriated funds.
At this stage, Kroll identified transactions to the value of US$350 million, which are directed related to the fraud committed at the three banks of Moldova.
It’s clear that the appropriated funds were laundered and dissipated through an extended network of companies and bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions, including through accounts of banks from Moldova, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Cyprus. Measures are being taken to follow the flow of the funds so as to identify all the persons who profited as a result of the fraud and to initiate all the necessary judicial procedures for recovering the assets. According to the National Bank, there are other persons besides Ilan Shor who profited from the fraud committed at the three Moldovan banks.
