Veaceslav Platon accuses the suspended chief prosecutor of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Viorel Morari that by his actions and statements he tries to discredit Prosecutor General Alexandru Stoianoglo. According to him, after Morari said that Stoianoglo’s wife is the beneficiary of Ukrainian companies in which he owns shares, he asked for information. As a result, he learned that changes in the register of the given companies were made in a notarial office in Kiev a day ago so that Stoianoglo’s wife appears as the final beneficiary of these companies.
In a news conference at IPN, Veaceslav Platon said he found out that the person registered by that notary in Kiev is the prosecutor general’s wife. Those companies didn’t perform any activity since they were founded. Four years ago, they were stockholders at a commercial bank in Moldova. Those companies were dispossessed of shares, were at the pre-bankruptcy stage and were to be liquidated.
Veaceslav Platon said he asked the responsible bodies in Ukraine to institute criminal proceedings and to hold the persons who made those changes in the register of companies without his consent accountable. Those who ordered these illegalities are from the Republic of Moldova and their only goal is to discredit the prosecutor general so as to prevent him from investigating the bank fraud. “Mister Plahotniuc and Mister Morari are the only ones who pursue goals in this case, but they act under the protection of political forces that will soon act, I think, and we will see who are those through whom Plahotniuc and Morari try to save themselves,” stated Veaceslav Platon.
He noted that such changes in the foreign registers of companies can be made easily. This often happens in Ukraine and is done also with the aim of taking over companies. “It is evident to everyone that Plahotniuc and Morari are in agony and thus resort to dirty actions that will be easily probed.”
Veaceslav Platon also said that in the next hearing in the case of conviction of Viorel Morari, in which he is the injured party, he will ask for Morari’s isolation as these actions represent pressure exerted on him.
Lawyer Alexandr Bodnariuc said the changes in the register of companies were made yesterday and immediately afterward Viorel Morari arranged the news conference. Morari this way exposed himself as he knew about those changes. The goal of these actions is to denigrate the prosecutor general and to avoid criminal liability for the illegalities committed when Vlad Plahotniuc was in power. These actions imply the exertion of pressure on the parties involved in the case in which Morari is accused.
Veaceslav Platon spent four years behind bars. He was arrested in July 2016 and in April 2017, the Chisinau City Court sentenced him to 18 years in jail for swindle and laundering of money in very large amounts that caused damage of over 800 million lei to Banca de Economii (Savings Bank). In December 2017, Platon got 12 years behind bars for trying to withdraw sums of money from several insurance firms, in which he was a majority shareholder, while he was under arrest in 2016. He allegedly asked for the support of members of the special purpose detachment “Pantera” in this regard. On January 30, this year, the Chisinau City Appeals Court quashed the December 2017 decision by which Platon was given 12 years in jail, demanding that the case be retried. On May 18, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo said the case started against Veaceslav Platon was fully fabricated and a procedure to review the sentence will be initiated. He also said that Vladimir Plahotniuc is one of the main beneficiaries of the bank fraud. On June 15, the court suspended the execution of the sentence passed by the Chisinau City Court. The case is being retried.
