The Prosecutor General’s Office instituted criminal proceedings over abuse of power committed by decision makers of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure and the Public Property Agency in personal interests or the interest of third parties in the assignment of the gaming sector to foreign companies according to dubious schemes, which caused damage to the national public budget, IPN quoted Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo as saying in a press briefing.
“The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure arranged the technical conditions for the potential partners so as to exclude from the start the national companies from this sector. Evidently, all the conditions were adjusted for a concrete company, the contest results being predictable. The Prosecutor General’s Office investigated the actions that allowed causing damage to the public budget following the transfer of control in the gaming sector to foreign companies by different dubious schemes,” said the prosecutor.
As a result of the illegal actions, even if the National Lottery of Moldova was to benefit from 75% of the revenues, while the private partners of 25% in accordance with the contract clauses, the profit from the organization and holding of the lottery was distributed this way: 11.4% – the state and 89.6% – the private partner. During November 1, 2018 – May 2019, the revenues from the sale of lottery tickets came to 325.98 million lei, 39.5 million lei of which was collected by the National Lottery, while about 81.5 million lei by the private partner.
The National Lottery of Moldova was also disadvantaged in the gambling machines sector. It was assigned a larger volume of obligations and costs than the private partner, but the Lottery collected only 51% of the gross revenues in this sector.
“As a result of this public-private partnership, about 65% of the national companies ceased operations and thousands of people remained without a job, tens of companies and persons were illegally held accountable, tens of enterprises claim damages of millions of lei for the termination of licenses that they paid in advance from the Ministry of Finance. At the same time, the firms with a privileged business pay millions of lei for advertisements on radio and TV stations affiliated to citizen Plahotniuc,” stated Alexandr Stoianoglo.
He noted the prosecutors are taking measures to identify and hold accountable all those involved in this criminal scheme.
