The Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) announced on Thursday, December 22, that it has completed the criminal prosecution of a former head of the Public Health Department of the Chisinau City Hall, found with a difference of over 8 million lei between declared and real income.

According to sources of Ziarul de Gardă, the person in question is Mihai Moldovanu, former head of the Health Department of Chisinau City Hall, targeted in several ZdG investigations.

According to the PCCOCS, although he is presumed innocent until a final court ruling is handed down, at the request of prosecutors, seizures were placed on his assets – the luxury house in Chisinau and the adjacent land, as well as the luxury car.

Specifically, PCCOCS prosecutors established that he had entered false data five times in his declaration of assets and interests between 2015 and 2019. These concerned diminished indicated areas of land, failure to indicate the wealth of his concubine and his status as a partner in a company active in the field in which he worked in the City Hall, failure to indicate a loan of nearly three million lei in foreign currency and other falsehoods in the declaration of assets and interests. Moreover, at the beginning of the criminal period under investigation, the integrity authority found his conflict of interest in the adoption of a decision of the Chisinau Municipal Council on the lease of some rooms.

“The difference between his income and expenses becomes even more striking when compared with the basic monthly salary he received at the time, amounting to 5000-6000 lei. Although he does not admit his guilt, the accumulation of evidence included in the file proves otherwise. Moreover, it should also be noted that the accused took anticipatory measures to mislead the investigations. For example, he sold his son-in-law part of a building plot for a large sum of money, which he could not have owned in relation to the income he obtained; and he drew up a receipt for a loan from a close relative, even though she had no such financial potential.

In this context, the facts incriminated by the prosecutors were also the subject of journalistic investigations published by “Ziarul de Gardă”. It should be noted that he had previously worked in the City Hall, in other positions, for almost twice the period under investigation”, announces PCCOCS.

According to the law, the investigated acts are punishable by a fine of up to 400,000 lei or imprisonment for a term of 3 to 7 years, in both cases with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or to exercise a certain activity for a term of 10 to 15 years.

In 2017, ZdG wrote about the luxury house where Mihai Moldovanu lived with his partner Mihaela Iacob. The house was registered in the name of Mihaela Iacob’s retired parents, but was listed in their declarations of assets and interests.