Four employees holding executive posts at the National Bank of Moldova are investigated for abuse of power. According to the National Anticorruption Center (NAC), the functionaries are suspected of attempting to help a group of shareholders of Banca de Finanțe și Comerț SA to take the bank under control, causing considerable damage to other shareholders, IPN reports.
The NAC said there are reasonable suspicions that persons holding responsible posts at the NBM in 2018-2019 created conditions and prepared documents with denatured information. This fact served as a reason for the Executive Board of the NBM to issue a decision on the concerted action of shareholders of Banca de Finanțe și Comerț in January 2019. As a result, particular rights related to the status of shareholder were suspended and the obligation to sell particular shares within three months was imposed.
The given documents affected the ownership rights of shareholders that together held 35.15% of the shares of Banca de Finanțe și Comerț SA. The damage was estimated at over 123 million lei given the forced sale of shares at prices that were evidently lower than the market price.
The functionaries are investigated outside custody.
The NBM reacted by expressing its profound concern about the procedural search actions and the method of handling a criminal case that was recently started against employees holding key posts. In a press release, the NBM says the case refers to a decision taken by the central bank in accordance with the commitments undertaken by the Republic of Moldova by the memorandum of understanding with the IMF, in the context of the banking system reform done by the Bank during almost four years. The goal is to ensure shareholder transparency, healthy corporate governance in banks and a regulatory framework that is needed to ensure a stable banking system.
