Document forgery gang busted by Moldovan police

Four persons have been held by police on suspicion of forging and putting into circulation false documents, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vasile Sarcov, a senior officer at the Interior Ministry, told a news conference on Tuesday the gang was exposed by an undercover agent aged 25 who acted as a student in need of a certificate of the Moldovan Economic Academy. One of the counterfeiters was caught in the act as he was selling the false certificate for a sum of 500 euros. Following criminal investigations, the police discovered three more persons involved in the scheme. Searches at the place of one of the suspects revealed 136 seals with the initials of a large variety of state institutions, as well as graduation certificates, work records, and other documents. The price of a forgery ranged from 150 to 500 euros. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the suspects on charges of “counterfeiting, possession, sale and use of false official documents, blanks, stamps and seals, committed by two or more persons.”. If found guilty, the four men could pay up to 12,000 lei in fines or serve up to 5 years in prison. The police also arrested a female principal of a Chisinau school at the moment when she was receiving 1,650 lei for the favor of letting a ninth grader with poor academic performances and misbehavior records pass graduation exams.