At least 15 persons from Chisinau and other parts of the country are suspected of forming part of a criminal group that laundered 65 million lei and avoided paying almost 6 million lei taxes, Vitalie Busuioc, deputy chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases told a news conference. Five members were arrested, while eight were eight were questioned as accused. Another two persons are investigated as suspects, IPN reports.
The scheme also involves agricultural producers who accepted the services of the suspects so as not to pay taxes. According to the law enforcers, the criminal group falsified documents for the purchase of agricultural products supplied to processing plants, indicating their representatives as traders in these. For the delivered goods, the plants transferred money to the bank accounts of intermediaries, who collected it from ATMs and transmitted it to the suspects who, for their part, passed it on to agricultural producers through other persons.
For the provided services, the members of the group retained a commission of 9% of the value of the transaction. The other money reached the agricultural producers in cash. The intermediaries got 0.5% of the collected money. The suspects operated in Chisinau through three banks. There were farmers who refused the services of the suspects. This was proven by a series of wiretaps. “Within the group, each member played a well-defined role: kept official and double financial records, falsified primary accounting documents, acted as couriers,” said Eugen Bordos, of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases.
The investigation continues. The organizers of the scheme are investigated under arrest. They face five to ten years in jail for tax evasion and up to six years behind bars for money laundering.
