Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Vadim Brînzan claims that “a group of people incorporated criminal schemes like those used in the 1990s into the government structure and turned the whole country in their own business.” According to minister, the organization raked in no less than 400 million lei from these schemes each month.
“Our money, our taxpayers’ money was being diverted from the public budget and into the pockets of this organization. So let us talk about these local crime bosses, these overlords of Plahotniuc’s mob army. Almost all the economic institutions were controlled by the Democratic Party’s overlords,” Vadim Brînzan told a press briefing.
The minister also added that “these people acted like barons in the Middle Ages collecting tribute from businesses and state-owned enterprises, wherever their sticky fingers could reach, and some of them are still doing this today.” According to Vadim Brînzan, “the money was being gathered into the party’s budget and then redirected to those who ran the system. Those who refused to pay were jailed, blackmailed or their businesses were taken away.” This happened “with the support of the law enforcement agencies that ensured protection and covered things up.”
Vadim Brînzan said that the Ministry “went along by promoting advantageous policies and looked away whenever it had to intervene.” According to the minister, there are complaints from citizens and businesses detailing dishonest practices at some institutions, such as the National Road Transport Agency or the Moldova Railways. One such complaint alleges that the Moldova Railways charged an illegal fee of 2 to 5 euros for every tonne of cargo hauled in Moldova. Last year, ten million tonnes of goods were hauled, meaning about 20-50 million euros of “dirty money collected by these barons.”
"I would like to send a message to these bosses, prosecutors, judges, officials and enforcers who engaged in and are still running these fraudulent schemes: first of all, Plahotniuc left and he will not return to Moldova, except in handcuffs. You don’t have any cover anymore. Secondly, we know who these people are and who helped then, how they operated and how much they stole. All the complaints that we receive are forwarded to the relevant agencies - to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anticorruption Center,” said the minister.
Vadim Brînzan urged the law enforcement members “who have covered these schemes for years” to resign and cooperation with the investigation. The minister also said that a legislative package is being prepared to “bring back normality and transparency into the economy.”
