The National Anticorruption Center (CAN) has caught the members of a criminal group who laundered 134 million lei in 2010-2012, IPN reports.
According to a communiqué from the Center, a group of companies purchased agricultural products paying millions of lei in cash. The criminal group included five persons from Moldova, including Transnistria, and Ukraine.
During two years, on the pretext of buying and exporting agricultural products, the group legalized the cash by making fictitious contracts or including erroneous data in the bookkeeping records. The available cash was put into legal circulation by making payments in advance to non-resident companies with accounts in Latvia.
These companies transferred the money from accounts in the so-called Transnistrian banks to companies managed by their relatives, registered in the Transnistrian region.
It was established that the firms managed by the criminal group in 2011-2012 were refunded VAT of 11 million lei from the budget.
Five countries provided legal assistance in investigating this case. There were started nine criminal cases over money laundering, tax evasion, falsification of documents and appropriation that were merged into one case. Five persons were charged, while the manager and organizer of the criminal group was put on the wanted list.
