PLDM seeks special parliamentary session on raider attacks

The parliamentary group of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) requested the Standing Bureau to open parliamentary hearings within a special session of the legislature. The request was made following attempts to appropriate holdings of financial-banking institutions working in Moldova, the head of the Liberal-Democratic group Valeriu Strelet announced in a news conference, Info-Prim Neo reports. The group’s leader said a Government’s report on the created situation and the measures taken and reports by the institutions subordinated to Parliament, including the National Securities Commission, the National Bank, the Security and Information Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office, should be presented during the special session. Valeriu Strelet said the group will demand that the special session should end with the adoption of decisions that would trenchantly assess the situation and punish the persons to blame. “We will also ask for a thorough analysis of the situation of the judicial system as even the overdue ordinances of the National Securities Commission were annulled by courts, which is an unprecedented case as such ordinances can be terminated only by the National Financial Market Commission, while the courts only rule on their legality,” he stated. Valeriu Strelet also said that the PLDM’s group drafted a set of anti-raid laws aimed at preventing a repeat of such situations. On September 5, Prime Minister Vlad Filat told a news conference that four banks operating in Moldova - Moldova Agroindbank, Banca de Economii, Victoriabank and Universalbank - were subjected to raider attacks. In a program on Publika TV later, he provided details. “I suppose high-ranking officials may have acted as accomplices in this case. Those attacks could have been made under direct parliamentary control. The PLDM will ask Head of Parliament Marian Lupu to call an extraordinary sitting where the subordinate divisions would explain why they did not take steps in the case of the raider attacks,” said Vlad Filat. He stressed that what is happening now is the greatest challenge in his life. “It is greater than on April 7, 2009,” he said. The Premier stated that raider actions were also reported at the insurance company ASITO. According to him, 40% of the shares of this company were to be taken over illegally by offshore businesses. The victims at ASITO, Banca de Economii and Victoriabank included Viorel and Victor Topa, who support the anti-mafia campaign conducted by Sergiu Mocanu. “In the case of Moldova Agroinbank (MAIB), the decision was taken by an arbitration court in Saint Petersburg. Shortly afterward, a court in Causeni sustained the position of the arbitration court and the bailiff transmitted the shares to offshore companies in exchange for ‘debts.’ Damage was caused to two Dutch citizens and four Slovenians,” said the Premier. Vlad Filat said the attacks on banks and companies in Moldova were aimed at affecting the political system and destabilizing the government. “There are two ‘geniuses’ who can do such things in our country. Judging by the scale and architecture of the plan, I can say they may have worked together in this case,” he stated, adding all those who break the law must be penalized, but it is not within his remit to do this.