The lawyers for former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who is accused of traffic of influence and passive corruption, said the statements made by the mayor of Orhei Ilan Shor cannot be credible given that he pursues one goal – to incriminate Vlad Filat so that he escapes punishment. The ex-president of the Administration Board of Banca de Economii at a press conference said the real damage caused to the banking system as a result of the frauds total US$625 million dollars and the figure of US$1 billion is inflated, IPN reports.

According to a press release of Filat’s defense, a number of criminal cases were started against Shor over fraudulent bank management, violation of lending rules, appropriation and others. “Thus, we warn that Ilan Shor is a very vulnerable and blackmailable person. We express our regret at the fact that ‘justice’ is done before video cameras, not in the courtroom. We cannot understand why Shor didn’t speak with the same ardor in front of judges, when he was guided in his answers by prosecutor Adriana Betisor. Moreover, by his defamatory and false statements, Ilan Shor violated the presumption of innocence of MP Vlad Filat. Such statements in relation to a state official seriously violate Article 21 of the Constitution and Article 6 of the ECHR,” said the lawyers.

These noted that the statements made by the mayor of Orhei in the news conference are false. “All the documents and proofs presented by the prosecutors in the case of Vlad Filat show that the money was provided by Banca de Economii through intermediates and was transferred to the accounts of companies owned by Ilan Shor. These facts are stated in the Kroll report. There is no connection between the companies run by Shor and Vlad Filat. The prosecutors also didn’t show how Vlad Filat benefitted from these dubious transactions performed by Ilan Shor. Also, the statements made by the mayor of Orhei weren’t included in the indictment presented by the prosecutors,” it is said in the press release.