Valentin Vizant, former director of the Civil Aviation Administration, issued a statement to claim that the criminal case where he is accused of money laundering, among other suspects, is “a fabrication”.

He blames Vasile Șarco, ex-head of the Anti-Money Laundering Service.

According to Vizant, in 2020 he was invited for a voluntary interview to the Service, and after offering explanations on a series of contracts, he was never called back.  

On Monday, the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) said it detained a former Civil Aviation executive for 72 hours on money laundering charges. According to the NAC, he and three other investigated persons worked for a private aviation consulting company and allegedly laundered part of their fees through offshore firms, evading tax. A number of the companies involved in the “suspicious transactions” are allegedly connected to money laundering operations investigated as part of the 2014 bank fraud and the so-called Laundromat case.

But Vizant claims the work done by the consulting firms was perfectly legal, and the contracts and provided services were not phony.

“The NAC investigators and prosecutors started this criminal case without getting a good grasp of the matter, without prior questions and explanations, and based on Șarco’s absolutely incompetent allegations. This only serves to show that the Prosecution Service is sliding back to the Plahotniuc era, when the seizure of businesses and illegal persecution of entrepreneurs were the norm. In fact, the state remains captured”, complaints Vizant.

Vizant says he intends to file criminal complaints against the prosecutors. Moreover, if “all this farce” causes Vizant to lose a “multi-million dollar” contract he claims to be currently negotiating, he promises to sue for damages.