The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security, Defence and Public Order, Chiril Moţpan, argues that, from 2015 until now, "General Media Group" Ltd company, which holds the broadcast licenses of Prime TV and Publica TV stations, has obtained from different legal entities and natural persons, significant financial means. The MP has made public part of the figures in a Facebook post, quoted by IPN.
"The first financier is, of course, the owner, Vladimir Plahotniuc, who transferred into the company’s account 43 million 358 thousand lei, as contribution to the share capital and 48 million 607 thousand lei, in the form of a loan. It should be pointed out that during the same period, the citizen Plahotniuc deposited in his account 136 million 256 thousand lei in cash. At the same time, he took a loan of 3 100 000 euros and received, as dividends, 2 055 700 euros, as well as 903,695 US dollars from the Vanguard International LTD non-resident company,” says the chair of the Parliamentary Committee.
The MP also mentioned that the Democratic Party of Moldova paid 14 108 139 lei to the respective company for advertising services. He specifies that, during the same period, the PDM collected 140 767 275 lei from donations and contributions”.
According to Chiril Moţpan, "Casa Media Corp" Ltd transferred to the accounts of General Media Group 40 918 500 lei for the broadcast time; "Casa Media Plus" Ltd FCE - 65 300 300 lei for the broadcast time; "Artmarket" Ltd. - 636 350 lei for advertising services; "Radio Media Group INC" Ltd contributed with 1 million and 995 lei; the candidate for the position of president of the Republic of Moldova (the electoral fund) transferred 14 900 591 lei.
In the aforementioned post, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee has provided more figures on the financing of other radio and TV stations.
Recently, a statement of "General Media Group CORP Ltd" has mentioned that "all the operations of the company are transparent, in compliance with the effective laws and norms, and these things can be verified and proved at any time by any control authority of the state" The statement also maintains that "the actions of associating its television stations with information, of any kind, regarding the use of money from the billion theft, are part of the campaign of misinformation, manipulation and dissemination of fake news, carried out by politicians in power or politicians with criminal issues, but also by state institutions for the direct purpose of denigrating and putting pressure on journalists of Prime TV and Publika TV newsrooms.”