PPCD accuses Vlad Filat of corruption anew

The Christian-Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) accuses the leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM), Vlad Filat, of being involved in a grave case of corruption, cigarettes smuggling and fiscal evasion. Vlad Filat rejects the accusations, Info-Prim Neo reports. The PPCD parliamentarian, Stefan Secareanu, during the Parliament’s sitting of March 20, spoke of the case “Filat – the Chisinau Tobacco Factory,” which was examined back in 1999 by a probe parliamentary commission, headed by Iurie Rosca. According to Stefan Secareanu, the commission established that Vlad Filat, in his double position of a director of a company and of the head of the State Privatization Department, brought about serious damages to the tobacco factory, the interest package of stocks of which belongs to the state. Vlad Filat was the only distributor of the products of the Chisinau tobacco factory in Romania. His firm committed to pay the cost of the travel in advance. This obligation was never observed, as later in 1998, the company owed the factory USD100,000, said the PPCD MP. Stefan Secareanu maintains that, meanwhile, Vladimir Filat was the protagonist of several legal inquests probed by Romanian police for cigarettes smuggling and fiscal evasion. Filat was monitored by the Romanian Information Service, establishing he had links with businessmen from the organized crime in the scandal “Tigareta Moldova”, what was the object of a penal dossier. The PPCD parliamentary faction asks the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center to probe the case, and to answer why the results of the parliamentary commission’s search were neglected. MP Vlad Filat denies the accusations and maintains that the case in question, as old as 10 years, was cleared out by Romanian courts. “I declare with all my responsibility I was never summoned as a suspect, or accused in Romania or in any other state,” the deputy told journalists. Vlad Filat expressed his wish that the PPCD should publish the information from the law-enforcing organs. Then the “i” will be dotted in this case, says Filat. The PLDM president describes the accusations as convulsive actions of some people who do not manage to manage their internal affairs of the party and who aggressively build their relationships with their political opponents, without any common sense. The PPCD has repeatedly brought in accusations to the PLDM leader during this session as to being involved in different corruption acts. Following the notifications, the investigating organs started to check up the PLDM. Vladimir Filat says they interrogate the former PPCD members who have joined the PLDM. On March 20, other six PPCD members – councilors in Cimislia district, including the head of the Cimislia branch of the PPCD, the deputy president of the district, announced they were leaving the formation for the PLDM. The reason they invoke is that “the PPCD leadership takes into account neither the party’s political program, nor the aspirations of the ones who have steadily supported it for the last 20 years.” At the same time, they state that the PLDM represents “the force having managed to give society not only a team of young and performing politicians, but also a new, realistic vision of democratizing the country.”