The administrators of two companies were fined 46,000 lei ($2,560) each and the companies themselves were ordered to pay fines of 165,000 lei ($9,180) after a district court found them guilty of facilitating illegal migration. Additionally, the proceeds of crime seized during the investigation phase - the equivalent of some $11,000 in cash - were confiscated by the government.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release that besides the pecuniary punishment the companies were also banned from providing recruitment services for jobs abroad for a period of five years.
The firms were found guilty of recruiting Moldovans to work in Israel in senior/disability care jobs for fees as high as $7,000 per job seeker. If the job seekers were unable to pay upfront, the companies allowed them to pay the fee gradually, only this time almost double, from monthly salaries.
The PGO said that last year prosecutors helped to confiscate proceeds of crime totalling 48 million lei ($2.68M).
