The Liberal faction said the Parliament’s special commission of inquiry into the situation in the financial-banking sector conducted an investigation with the aim of hushing up the wrongdoings of the government, rather than of discovering the truth. The only Liberal lawmaker of the commission Iurie Chirinciuc presented an alternative report on March 24, IPN reports.
Iurie Chirinciuc said the robbing of Banca de Economii (BEM), Banca Sociala and Unibank represents a continuation of the money landing and bank bankruptcy schemes designed long ago. All the state institutions were informed beforehand and permanently about the risks in the financial-banking sector, but didn’t fulfill their obligations and didn’t intervene to prevent the stealing of money from the three banks.
According to the lawmaker, on November 7, 2014, it was decided to provide a state guaranteed loan to the BEM, Banca Sociala and Unibank. On November 13, 2014 the Leanca Government adopted a decision (made secret for a period of 25 years) by which the Ministry of Finance guaranteed a loan of 9.434 billion lei with bonds with the maturity of four months. On November 25 and 26, 2014, the three banks released loans of 13.6 billion lei. On November 27, 2014, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered that the state should come again into possession of 56.1% of the BEM’s shares and pay back the sum of 80.2 million lei. On November 27, 2014, the Board of the National Bank of Moldova decided to provide an immediate loan. The same day the car that transported the documents concerning the loans provided on November 25-26, 2014 burned. The car belonged to Classica Force, a company affiliated to Ilan Shor.
“This chronology shows how well the events at this bank were planned. It is evident that a number of high-ranking state officials were involved in this scheme. These persons endanger state security,” said Iurie Chirinciuc, noting that the companies to which loans were released are owned by or affiliated to Ilan Shor.
The MP also said that the Moldovan leu in January-February depreciated because of the massive and sudden demand of foreign currency following the release of loans of 13.6 billion lei in November 2014 and the laundering of 100 billion rubles through Moldinconbank in 2014, plus the massive conversion of the deposits in lei into deposits in foreign currency. The vulnerability of the Moldovan banking sector is also determined by the direct or indirect possession by Russia of 80% of the assets of the national banks. However, this argument didn’t prevent the state from conceding 25% of the shares in the BEM to the Russian bank Vnesheconombank in the autumn of 2013.
Iurie Chirinciuc noted the fact that the central bank allowed panic to appear on the currency market of Moldova and then placed US$50 million on the market the day the Gaburici Government was invested cannot be explained. As the problems in the banking system remained unsolved, we can witness new financial shocks that can be even greater than those experienced during the first two months of this year.
