Vlad Filat says national courts exceeded authority in case of IS Registru

The Economic Court and the Economic Court of Appeals exceeded their authority when examining the case of the state-run information resources center IS Registru, in which the institution is obliged to pay over US$41 million to a number of companies, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said Friday, when presenting the developments in this case to the press, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Premier said that the case was tried by economic courts even if the decision to liquidate them was already adopted and they were to send the case for examination to the competent courts. He also said that the complaint was to be examined by an international arbitration court, not by Moldovan courts of law. An attempt was made in this case to appropriate the property of other persons and the competent court is to shed light in this case, while the persons to blame should be punished. According to Vlad Filat, in 1993 the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Economy and the Israeli company Supecom LTD signed a contract to implement the national passport system. Afterward, Supecom designated an official regional representative on Moldova’s territory – the Irish company Intercomsoft LTD, to which all the rights and obligations deriving from the contract were transferred. In 1996, Intercomsoft and the Government signed a contract for leasing equipment for a period of ten years. In 2006, the contract expired, but representatives of Supercom and Intercomsoft did not come to verify the payments and draw up a report on the termination of the agreement. On the other hand, in June 2006 Intercomsoft sued the Government of Moldova at an U.S. court, but withdrew the complaint later. It then filed an application to the International Arbitration Court in France, but lost the case. The case was also examined by other courts. At the end of 2010, it was sent to the District Economic Court. Intercomsoft and Andimit – the company that won the right to recover 50% of the claimed debts – asked over US$100 million. The court ordered levying over US$70 million from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The Economic Court of Appeals reduced the sum to US$41.5 million. Recently, the authorities submitted an application to the Supreme Court of Justice. Vlad Filat avoided giving the names of the persons to blame and who are behind this case.