Six employees of the Customs Service, including a chief responsible for the management of databases, were arrested by officers of the National Anticorruption Center in the morning of March 18. These are suspected of regularly asking for money from persons for removing or influencing the removal of data concerning motor vehicles with foreign registration numbers from the information system, IPN reports.

According to the National Anticorruption Center, besides the chief responsible for the management of databases, there were arrested three inspectors and two intermediaries. There were started five criminal cases merged into one procedure over passive corruption, inference peddling and complicity in passive corruption.

The denouncers said the role of intermediaries was to influence public persons of the Customs Service to modify the information in the database concerning the entry or exit of motor vehicles with foreign registration numbers. Under the law, the vehicles with foreign registration numbers can stay in Moldova for at most 180 days. Through the agency of the information system, the vehicle was indicated as having left the country without this leaving the customs post. The tax for each car was €400.

The suspects face up to ten years in jail, fines and ban on holding particular posts for a particular period of time, while the intermediaries – at most six years in jail and fines.

The Customs Service reacted, saying an internal inquiry was opened.