Sums of billions used in the suspect transactions of the “Laundromat” case were transferred to 62 states, vice director of the Service for the Protection and Combating of Money Laundering Yevgeny Sîrbu stated in the first public hearing staged by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the elucidation of all the circumstances that led to the laundering of considerable amounts of money thorough courts of law and financial-banking institutions of the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
According to the Service’s director Vasile Sharko, the Service in 2010 received from a bank information about a suspect transaction that involved a number of players. All the suspect transactions were examined by the Service. During 2011 – 2014, there were carried out three thematic inspections and an inspection covering the whole banking system. The Service also collected internal files from the involved bank and notified about 100 states so as to obtain information.
He also said that in 2010-2012, the Service had dealt with the obtaining of information about the origin of money that was coming from another state. Some of the European states refused to provide information, arguing there are no data about the illegal origin of the money. The transactions totaled over US$22 billion. The conversion of rubles into the currency was performed inside the Russian banking system and, at first sight, this didn’t affect the currency exchange system of the Republic of Moldova. The persons who collected the money are not residents of the Republic of Moldova, but entered the country through the Transnistrian segment in that period.
Asked if the companies that covered the “Landromat” include firms controlled by current or former politicians or public figures, the representatives of the Service said there are such firms, but didn’t provide details. They noted the institution possesses confidential information that cannot be made public, if only in a meeting held behind closed doors.
The date of such a meeting will be decided next week.
