Former Minister of Finance Veaceslav Negruta said the money was actually stolen not from Banca de Economii (BEM), Unibank and Banca Sociala, but from the reserves of the National Bank of Moldova. He made such a statement in the talk show “Interpol” on TV7 channel, IPN reports.
According to Negruta, high-ranking officials from all the governments have been involved in this theft, starting with 2005. “They aimed at the National Bank’s reserves and the three banks were used to commit the stealing. Communist MP Oleg Reidman designed this scheme. He controlled Banca de Economii until 2010 through the bank’s management. After Reidman, other officials became involved. It was a regional scheme used to transfer money from one banking system to another,” stated the ex-minister.
Veaceslav Neguta noted that he informed the state institutions about the developments in 2013, but no reaction followed. “I informed the prosecutor general, the Security and Intelligence Service, the National Anticorruption Center and these didn’t react. All these institutions are in a coma, being managed by blackmailable persons. I tried to inform President Timofti about what happened at Banca de Economii. His adviser, who initially accepted to report to him, ultimately refused as he was threatened with a criminal case by officers of the National Anticorruption Center. In a month, they started a criminal case against me. Two attempts were made to break into the secret division of the Ministry of Finance. We don’t know who made them, but they surely wanted to steal some secret documents,” he stated.
The former minister made it clear that not Ilan Shor is the main person to blame for the theft of the billions of lei. “The head of the National Anticorruption Center Viorel Chetraru said that when Shor took over BEM, this bank already had problems. If Chetraru wonders what was there in Shor’s head when this accepted to take over BEM, he should also ask himself who was there behind Shor? The Kroll report repeatedly makes reference to Shor. This report, which was produced in a highly professional way, is based only on the ingredients made available by the National Bank. In fact, I think there are two groups that designed the stealing scheme, of Vlad Plahotniuc and of Veaceslav Platon,” he stated.
Negruta made serious accusations assist the National Bank governor Dorin Dragutanu. “I often asked myself earlier why the National Bank took such bad decisions and in April 2012 allowed the devaluation of the state-owned shareholding of 18.5%. It was actually a raider attack led by former MP Victor Berlinschi. I ultimately found out that Berlinschi is the uncle of Dragutanu. The central bank’s governor has probably the greatest involvement and responsibility because he is the supervisor of the banking system,” he said.
As to the fact that he was put on probation for a three-year period, the former minister said he trusted the ministry’s jurist who convinced him that the implementation of the court decision was inevitable. “I received no instructions from the administration of the Liberal Democratic Party. I’m not a jurist. The ministry’s jurist made reference to the ECHR practice, saying we risked paying more money to Sandulache if we didn’t implement that decision,” he stated.
