MP Alexandru Slusari, chair of the parliamentary inquiry commission on the $1 billion bank fraud, says that over the past week the Commission has come into the possession of evidence that chronicles “the entire timeline, all the actions and inactions of a number of politicians and their involvement in this fraud, which started in 2011 and is continuing to the present day”.
Alexandru Slusari told a press conference that the evidence received included a host of classified, “very important” documents from SIS and the National Security Commission, as well as pieces of evidence from ex-finance minister Veaceslav Negruța, ex-chair of the budget and finance commission Veaceslav Ioniță, and a note from the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Further requests to contribute with evidence have been sent to the National Anticorruption Center’s money laundering prevention division, and to the International Monetary Fund, which in 2013 issued “a very important document with a vision as to how the Banca de Economii issue should be addressed”.
The inquiry commission has found connections between the bank fraud and the so-called Russian Laundromat, says Slusari. “We’ll analyze whether we should expand and look at the Laundromat as well.”
The commission is still awaiting to receive the Second Kroll report, after requesting copies from the National Bank, the PGO and the financial investigations firm itself. Slusari said receiving a copy from Kroll would seem more likely, given the reluctance of the former two.
On Wednesday, ex-economy minister Valeriu Lazăr and the former CNA director Viorel Chetraru are scheduled to be quizzed by the inquiry commission.
