The Criminal Investigative Task Force working the $1B bank fraud case will be extended, as decided by acting Prosecutor General Igor Popa, following an evaluation of the progress made and discussions with development partners.

Under the decision, the Task Force will be supplemented with officers from the Ministry of the Interior, of the Security and Intelligence Service, judicial experts, and accountants from the National Bank and the National Securities Market Commission.

The officers will be reassigned from their main jobs to work full-time on the Task Force.

Meanwhile, in an effort to boost asset recovery, a joint investigation team will be set up in cooperation with EU’s Eurojust to collect documents and other evidence about those involved in the fraud.

Further, letters of request have been sent out to relevant authorities in Russia, Latvia, Italy, the United States, France, Austria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Switzerland, Estonia, Liechtenstein, and Monaco to help with evidence of bank transactions and hearing of witnesses.

The Prosecutor General’s Office plans to recover 13.34 billion lei, the equivalent of the bailout loans issued to the now defunct Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank. Some 2.2 billion lei has been recovered so far, including 1.2 billion lei from the sale of the defunct bank’s assets. The Task Force is now working on 197 sets of criminal proceedings concerning the three bankrupt banks.