Two Moldovan pharmaceutical companies are suspected of laundering money by tax evasion, falsifying documents and supplying medicines of a low quality to national hospitals. According to preliminary inquiries, the given firms caused damage of over 90 million lei to the state, IPN has learned from the National Anticorruption Center.

The companies imported drugs from China. In the Ukrainian port Odessa, until where the medicines were brought by sea, the prices in the documents were increased and an offshore company was indicated as the exporter. Afterward, the goods were taken to Moldova. This way, large consignments of drugs were sold on the home market at prices that were three-four times higher than the initial ones.

The National Anticorruption Center officers, in concert with Latvian partners, established that only 60% of the money earned from importing medicines was paid to the Chinese producers, while the rest was laundered through offshore companies.

During the 11 searches carried out within the investigations, there were seized bank extracts from the accounts of offshore companies, stamps of Chinese producers and of Transnistrian companies, and other documents. The laboratory examinations showed that a drug imported by one of the two companies is inefficient and does not meet the dose parameters. As a result, the Ministry of Health banned the administration and importation of this drug and withdrew from hospitals such drugs to the value of about 500,000 lei.