Police nail four loan scammers

Four persons are being investigated for working out an elaborate scheme to illegally obtain bank loans. They are suspected of illegally taking out about 30 loans of 30,000 lei each from a single bank, Info-Prim Neo reports. At a news conference on Tuesday, Alexandru Jizdan, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Division for Fighting Organized Crime, said that the group was headed by a 56-year-old woman, who is the director of four Chisinau firms. The group also included the firms’ chief accountant, the director of a bank branch and the daughter of the group leader. According to Jizdan, the suspects were recruiting persons from socially-vulnerable groups that were out of a job and employed them illegally at the given firms. The documents for getting bank loans were legalized in the names of these persons who received by 500 lei. No security was needed for the loans of up to 30,000 lei. So, in order to illegally obtain a loan, the offenders only forged the book record card and the health insurance policy. The accountant issued forged salary certificates. The bank official released the loan without checking the authenticity of the documents in exchange for 1,500 lei (5% of the loan’s value). The money was transferred to a special account of the director of the branch. Thirteen legal cases were opened against the suspects. If found guilty of illegally taking out bank loans, taking bribe and abuse of power, the offenders would serve 5 to 12 years in jail. The persons whose names were written in the documents will have to repay the loans. The Ministry of the Interior calls on the persons that gave their identity card or personal data to other persons to contact the police. Alexandru Jizdan said that they possess information about another 36 loans obtained illegally from other banks, but avoided naming the banks in inquiry interests. He only said that most of the banks in Moldova have been involved. “Such cases happen frequently not because the banking system is imperfect, but because the employees operate in collusion with the offenders. Most of the times, these employees hold important positions and this is rather serious,” Jizdan said. He also said that the banks avoid making such cases public so as not to damage their reputation as the bank institutions must guarantee the security of people’s savings. Yet, the banks already ask the police to identify the corrupt employees.