The sum that can be recovered as a result of the bank theft decreases daily because the authorities responsible for the investigation of the fraud have delayed the processes during the past five years and offered those involved the possibility of hiding the traces, including by adopting other laws. “The Kroll report stipulated a 50% - 70% probability of recovering the stolen money, but now this probability is very low,” former minister of finance Veaceslav Negruța, expert of Transparency International Moldova, stated in a public debate titled “Why was bank theft brought back into focus?”, which was staged by IPN News Agency.
Veaceslav Negruța noted the prosecutors had all the necessary evidence to sequestrate the assets of those involved in the bank fraud.
“This delay also forms part of the fraud allowed by prosecutors who didn’t make effort to sequestrate property at the right moment, when there was enough information about direct involvement. Mister Stoianoglo, in his appearance on May 18, said it clearly that the prosecutors have possessed information during many years. Respectively, there were enough proofs and arguments to sequestrate. By sequestration and blockage, they would have secured the recovery of the money stolen from the banking system or, at least, would have hastened the moment when the burden of the stolen US$1 billion was to be eased and removed from people’s shoulders,” stated the expert.
The ex-minister of finance noted that the exact sum stolen from the Moldovan banks is not known. “The prosecutors’ mission is rather difficult. We do not know the exact amount of stolen funds and I will not even try to guess the figures as no one knows the exact sum, if only the participants and those who stole that money from the banking sector,” he stated.
The expert of Transparency International Moldova said the documents existing at the National Bank of Moldova should be examined, if they hadn’t been destroyed, the persons who benefitted from those resources should be held accountable and conditions for recovering what is yet possible should be created.
The debate “Why was bank theft brought back into focus?” was the 136th edition of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
