Former director of Moldova’s Railways under investigation

Miron Gagauz, the former director of the state-run company Moldova’s Railways (CFM), is investigated for causing damage of 31 million lei to the state budget by an illegal transaction, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The prosecutors established that during 2005–2008, CFM, in the person of administrator Miron Gagauz, signed four contracts with the joint company Intertranscord SRL to lease out about 500 freight cars to the value of 55 million lei. Intertranscord has a registered capital of only 5,400 lei and was founded by a resident of Tiraspol town and the company Terboch Limited, which is registered in an off-shore zone. It rented out the freight cars to a Russian company, earning 75 million lei from this business. Moreover, as exporter of services instead of CFM, this economic entity was refunded VAT of about 11 million lei from Moldova’s state budget. Thus, by leasing out the cars to Intertranscord, Miron Gagauz caused damage to the state budget assessed at 31 million lei. The legal case opened against Miron Gagauz over misconduct in office was sent to the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime for investigation. Miron Gagauz was dismissed from the post of director of the state-run company Moldova’s Railways on the basis of his application filed on December 16.