In a report of the institution quoted by IPN, MONEYVAL, the anti-money laundering body of the Council of Europe, calls on the Moldovan authorities to fully and consistently use its legislative framework to combat money laundering and confiscation of fraudulent assets.
The report shows that Moldova faces various money laundering threats mainly deriving from corruption, tax evasion and smuggling committed internally and drugs trafficking and human trafficking for crimes committed outside of the country. Moldova MONEYVAL concludes that although the national risk assessment for 2017 does not separately explore the risks associated with organized crime groups, non-profit organizations and all aspects of financing terrorism, it is quite comprehensive and covers a wide range of subjects.
The report mentions high-level cases of money laundering, the "Russian laundromat" and "the theft of the billion" (called "Global Laundromat" and "Bank Fraud"), identified by the Moldovan authorities, with an overall growing trend for convictions. But although in the field of money laundering a wide range of investigations and actions are conducted, including with foreign actors and special investigative techniques, only a limited number of investigations led to criminal prosecutions, the report states.
Among the achievements it is mentioned that the Moldovan authorities have adopted and implemented several strategic documents, which demonstrates that depriving the criminals of the proceeds of crime is a policy objective. Nevertheless, the figures regarding the number and value of confiscated assets remain low and do not appear to correspond to the scale of proceeds-generating crime in the country.
Finally, MONEYVAL appreciates that Moldova has a solid legal and procedural framework for exchanging information with foreign partners in a comprehensive, proactive and timely manner, both upon request and spontaneously. Moldova is actively seeking, note the authors of the report, international cooperation from other states, which has resulted in convictions and confiscation of proceeds of crime.
Based on these results, MONEYVAL decided to apply its enhanced follow-up procedure and invited Moldova to submit a report in 2021.
