Moldova’s rulers turn up heat on business: Financial Times

The renowned British publication “The Financial Times” writes an article titled “Moldova’s rulers turn up heat on business” in which the author analyses the way in which the Chisinau ruling politicians struggle for a place in business, using the judiciary, Info-Prim Neo report. “For Gabriel Stati the (political) crisis is anything but finished. The 33-year-old son of one of Moldova’s richest businessmen is languishing in jail seven weeks after his arrest at the height of the (April 7) protests”. Anatol Stati, Gabriel’s father, claims his son was arrested as part of a campaign by Vladimir Voronin to “poach by using criminal methods the Stati family assets”. The arrest of the flamboyant Mr Stati, who has a taste for expensive cars and restaurants, highlights the business battles that are deeply entwined with politics in Moldova. Most of the inhabitants of Europe’s poorest country live from farming, laboring or working abroad. But a handful of entrepreneurs have made big fortunes through domestic monopolies, property deals and sometimes through trade between Chisinau and the breakaway territory of Transnistria. Political connections can be crucial, not least for putting pressure on rivals. Ion Sturza, a former prime minister who is now a business executive, believes people around Mr Voronin may be attacking the older Mr Stati through his son because they want his business. “Kids are the weakest point for parents – to attack our son is to attack everything,” he says. Anatol Stati’s main asset is Ascom, an oil services company with oil extraction rights in central Asia, Iraq and Sudan. He moved the business out of Moldova a year ago, blaming the political environment. Shortly afterwards he departed for neighboring Romania. But Gabriel Stati rejected his father’s pleas to join him abroad, Financial Times writes. He lived life to the full in Chisinau and attracting attention from gossip columnists, with his Hummer and Rolls-Royce and penchant for fancy restaurants and bars. A close associate of Anatol Stati says: “I asked his father, a serious businessman, why he let his son behave like a playboy and he just said: ‘I can’t control him. He’s just young and silly.’ ” Valeriu Prohnitchi, a consultant at Expert Group, a Chisinau think-tank, believes that a tide of state-mandated investigations into private businesses amounts to a pattern. “There are signs of increasing pressure on businesses,” he said. “It is not just about the Stati family and Ascom.” He points to Rompetrol, the Romanian-owned petrol retailer, which was recently fined $2m for company law violations. Mr Sturza, the former prime minister, who runs its operations in Moldova, says: “We have five groups of investigators in the building from morning to evening”. Vladimir Filat, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat party that was runner-up in the elections, claims state authorities used the courts to gain control of a conference center he owned until last year. Three weeks ago, Anatol Caslaru, part-owner of Carmez, a meat processing business, was thrown in prison for alleged securities law violations, a claim that has given rise to skepticism. “This is a pure dispute between shareholders. Supposedly he bought too aggressively, but securities law in Moldova is non-existent,” Mr Sturza says, quoted by the Financial Times.