As Moldova prepares for the October 20 presidential election and simultaneous referendum on European integration, Ilan Shor has set up five companies in Moscow nominally specializing in finance and lending, an investigation by RISE Moldova revealed.
In one company, Shor has associated with a state corporation owned by the Russian government, and in another one with a Russian state bank, which is used by the fugitive oligarch to buy votes. Spending $15 million on the affair, Shor is trying to convince Moldovans to vote “no” at the referendum and choose Moscow’s candidate, whose name they will receive via the messaging app Telegram.
According to the investigation, when the presidential campaign officially began in September, $15 million entered Moldova from Russia. The authorities say this money entered the accounts of local leaders, supporters and activists of the Shor group, through the mobile app of Promsvyazbank, an internationally sanctioned Russian bank. Shor is allegedly ready pay up to one hundred euros for “no” at the referendum and a vote favorable for Russia in the presidential election.
Promsvyazbank, or PSB is a Russian state-owned bank that came under international sanctions days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Controlled by President Vladimir Putin himself, the bank is present in Crimea peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. That bank established a company in Moscow in partnership with Shor. It happened on September 2, the same month in which the $15 million was transferred.
The company is called А7 and specializes in providing financial services, loans and other types of credit. Evidence seen by RISE Moldova indicates Shor as the beneficiary. He owns 51% of the company, with the remaining 49% belonging to PSB. The company was founded with an equity of about $110,000. Also last month, Shor and PSB established two other subsidiary companies with similar names. The first is called A71, and the other A7-Agent SRL. The two companies have the same address as the parent company A7, and the director is Ilan Shor.
Timefinance OOO is the fourth company founded by Shor in Moscow this September. It was registered in a skyscraper in the financial district Moscow City. Also in Moscow City, RISE Moldova identified the fifth company. It’s called Exim International, and among its stated core activities are “market research and public opinion research”. Shor owns 75% of this company, and the remaining 25% belongs to the state financial corporation VEB.RF, internationally sanctioned and disconnected from the SWIFT interbank payment system. The VEB.RF’s board chairman is Putin himself.
Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutors believe that the beneficiaries of these transfers from Russia are some of the candidates running in presidential race. “It is early to conclude that some candidates need to be removed from the race, but we are analyzing all aspects and, when necessary, the law obliges us to notify other authorities, such as the Central Electoral Commission”, said Veronica Dragălin, Moldova’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor.
The fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor is under international sanctions for activities meant to destabilize the country and also for his role in the infamous 2014 bank fraud. Sentenced to 15 years in prison last year, his conviction is now pending examination at the Supreme Court.
