Transparency International Moldova (TI-Moldova) is warning that the recent changes to the Law on Moldovan Citizenship carry the risk that they will enable legalization of ill-gotten proceeds.

One observation made by TI-Moldova is that the amendment in question was introduced on the same date and had the same initiators as the controversial Fiscal Amnesty Bill, which was later revoked after coming under heavy fire from civil society and foreign partners.

By the introduced changes, effective from June 27, Moldovan nationality can be granted to anyone with a good “financial and economic reputation” who will invest in an area of “strategic development”, which the government identifies as real estate or ownership of state stock, and will maintain that investment for a period of 60 months or longer.

However, TI-Moldova thinks these hardly represent key areas contributing to Moldova’s growth. The organization regrets that the government has omitted education, IT, agriculture, food industry, energy efficiency and other important areas that need direct investment, and instead chose areas “that can be easily incorporated into money laundering schemes”.

Another concern is that the amendment offers citizenship to anyone lending the state as little as $250,000, with the implication that Moldovan taxpayers will have to repay the loans with interest.

“Trading Moldovan citizenship for goods bought here is just a form of temporarily absorbing funds from abroad, with the prospects being a distorted domestic market, favoring of ineffective investors and constructors, and Moldovan citizens compelled to massively flee abroad”, TI-Moldova wrote in a statement.

The organization is urging civil society and Moldova’s development partners to react to the government’s intention to “make its securities available to potential investors with ill-gotten proceeds, which could subsequently enter into international and regional circulation”.