Director of Chisinau publishing house put under house arrest

Three men from Chisinau are investigated for counterfeiting excise stamps and putting them into circulation. They were placed under house arrest, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the press office of the Ministry of the Interior's Police Department, the three were caught in the act of transmitting 11,000 counterfeit excise stamps. Two of them are employees of companies that make and sell alcoholic drinks, while the third one is the director of a publishing house based in Chisinau. During searches of suspects' homes and vehicles, there were found over 180,000 excise stamps, €3,500 and 300,000 lei. The money was taken in advance for subsequent orders. If the forged excise stamps had been used to mark alcoholic beverages, damage of 2.5 million lei would have been caused to the state budget. The culprits face a fine of up to 60,000 lei or imprisonment of up to 10 years.