The judges on June 15 ordered to immediately suspend the serving of the sentence passed by the Buiucani branch of the Chisinau City Court on April 20, 2017 against Veaceslav Platon, by which he was given 18 years in jail for swindle, money laundering and active corruption, IPN reports.

The Prosecutor General’s Office informed about the suspension of the sentence, saying the Ciocana branch of the Chisinau City Court fully accepted the prosecutor general’s relevant request.

In a press release, the PGO says the further serving of the sentence by Veaceslav Platon is conditional upon the development of the procedure for reviewing the case started by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases.

The new circumstances discovered within the review procedure will be examined together with the earlier accumulated evidence as part of a transparent process by respecting all the guarantees of a fair trial. These serious deviations were allowed in the previous procedures that involved Platon.

In April 2017, the Chisinau City Court sentenced him to 18 years in jail for swindle and money laundering 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 take sums of money from several insurance firms in which he was a majority shareholder out of Moldova in 2016, when he was under arrest. 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. The case is to 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.