Passengers who bought tickets will be among the first to have their money returned if the company becomes insolvent. Currently, passengers are ranked only seventh by priority when the debt is to be repaid. The initiative to amend the Insolvency Law was put forward by MPs of the Party of Action and Solidarity, IPN reports.
The authors said the bill was drafted particularly because there are over 28,000 citizens who haven’t received their money back after purchasing tickets from Air Moldova. It goes to about 75,000 tickets worth approximately €9 million.
“This law comes to stop the Shor criminal group from stealing money from people’s pockets. We see that the so-called Accelerated Restructuring Plan was made for the sake of a check mark, only to return the money to the affiliated companies, namely 15 in number. Out of 1,000 creditors, only 15 companies were found. A scheme is implemented with the aim of further draining the citizens. These companies collect enormous amounts from the sale of tickets for unreal flights on their bank accounts, becoming over-indebted to passengers,” MP Sergiu Lazarencu told a press conference.
“Shor illegally grabbed the state-owned airline Air Moldova with Plahotniuc’s help in 2018 and destroyed it as well. He bankrupted it, deceived people into buying plane tickets on nonexistent flights and now almost 30,000 citizens cannot get their money back. The bill comes to help the people who were harmed after they bought tickets from Air Moldova,” said bill co-author Radu Marian.
The draft law is to be examined and adopted by Parliament.
