Energokapital – the enterprise that intermediates the supply of electric power between the Moldovan Thermoelectric Plant (of Kuchrugan) and the right bank of the Nistru - in 2015 performed a number of transactions with companies based in offshore areas, Evgeni Sîrbu, vice director of the Money Laundering Prevention and Combating Service, stated in the hearings held by the parliamentary commission that examines the process of selling and supplying electricity to Moldova, IPN reports.
According to Evgeni Sîrbu, the Money Laundering Prevention and Combating Service initiated a number of financial investigations into the activity of Energokapital and discovered a number of transactions in offshore areas. The final beneficiary is a company that has links with the Transnistrian region. “At that time (in 2015), there was started a criminal case that is now at the Prosecutor General’s Office,” he stated.
The director of the main power supplier Energocom Adrian Pritula said the electricity is imported at nonregulated tariffs and the price can be negotiated, but the available financial resources are limited. Two contracts for the supply of power were singed for the period between 2019 and March 2020. The Moldovan Thermoelectric Plant provides 85% of the imported electricity.
Asked by MPs if he knows that 50 million lei that was to reach offshore areas was frozen on the accounts of “Energocom”, Adrian Pritula stated the money belongs to the company’s own fund that is accumulated since 2004. This is not frozen money, but working capital for paying for the supplied electricity.
MP Kiril Moțpan noted the goal of the hearings is to exclude any fraud in the energy sector and the Juley 17 hearings centered on press reports about money laundering schemes employed in this sector.
