Project manager denounces money laundering from European grant

Vladimir Volkov, manager of an EU-funded project, claims that large sums of money have been laundered from a European grant for the first stage of securing the state border. He accused the head of the Border Guard Roman Revenco of being involved in the fraud scheme, Info-Prim Neo reports. Volkov held a press conference on Thursday, June 28. He explained that the Swedish company Ericsson, which won the tender for the project, subcontracted a Romanian company that specializes in secret equipment. The Romanian, in turn, company subcontracted a local agent to execute the works. The local link is the one represented by Vladimir Volkov; it was supposed to deliver 33 orders. When seven more orders appeared and the company could not handle all of them, it contracted another enterprise, whose owner is Roman Revenco, according to Volkov. Vladimir Volkov claims that Revenco’s company took a payment in advance, but then falsified papers and obtained a direct contract with the Romanian company for the same seven tasks. “When these seven tasks appeared, they moved into the position of local subcontractors, which he couldn’t do as he was contracted to me”, declared Volkov. The manager sued the other company for shirking from works in spite of taking money in advance. Volkov says that Revenco took €130,000 from the project money. “The architect, the brains and engine of this corrupted scheme was Roman Revenco”, complains Volkov, who ended up having to defend himself in fabricated trials. “Since April 6, the whole State apparatus has been directed against me, because I have so much evidence. The main tool is the Ministry of the Interior, partly the Prosecutor’s Office and, you realize why, partly the judges”, declared the manager. Vladimir Volkov thinks that European financers do not know about the situation, because the Romanian company, conspiring with Revenco, is interested in hiding the illegalities committed within the project. The goal of the project “Fixed and Mobile Communications Network for the Border Guards of Moldova” is to install a system of fixed and mobile communications on certain segments of state borders. In the first stage, 27 towers were built and equipped; the subdivisions of the Border Guards in Cahul, Leova and Ungheni (40 points) were furnished with IT equipment and infrastructure. The second stage, started in May, includes a border section of 385 km between Hancesti and Otaci and 44 locations.