The bill to “de-criminalize” the economic offenses is related to the fraud committed in the financial-banking system, programs director at the independent think tank “Expert Grup” Dumitru Budeanschi and Transparency International Moldova expert Veaceslav Negruta stated in the talk show “Emphasis on today” on TVR Moldova channel, IPN reports.
Ex-minister of finance Veaceslav Negruta said the law is actually not aimed at the business and investment climate and its goal is not to stimulate investments and this fact was noted not only by experts, but also by the National Anticorruption Center. There is a close connection between everything that is related to the banking fraud committed in Moldova and this bill. The law benefits the group of persons who stole the US$ 1 billion.
“From our viewpoint, this bill is the third element of the series witnessed since December 2016. The first element was the attempt to legalize the illegalities by the so-called amnesty of capitals, but this initiative failed. The second element was the attempt to bring back into the country some of the money stolen from the banking system. This was done by a series of initiatives, such as the provision of nationality in exchange for investments, conversion of the debt into state debt. The third element – de-criminalization – is aimed at freeing the players that took part in a number of illegalities in Moldova from liability,” stated Veaceslav Negruta
Dumitru Budeanschi said the first concern about this bill is the fact that offenses that led to the financial-banking fraud could hide behind it and society would not accept this thing. The second concern derives from the reason that when damage is caused to a private individual by another private individual, these should be discouraged, not encouraged. “The bill refers not only to the relations with the state. It contains provisions that cover the private companies too. Here we can also refer to copyright,” he stated.
A number of civil society organizations signed an appeal whereby they call on the Ministry of Justice not to promote the draft law that “de-criminalizes” economic offenses. The signatories say the bill is designed to free “shrewd guys” from criminal liability and undermines the fight against corruption, IPN reports.
