In 2014, the biggest robbery in the history of Moldova took place: a billion dollars was stolen from three banks. Nine years later, no one is behind bars for the theft, although 66 people are accused in the “billion theft” case. The only person to have been sentenced to 15 years in prison is former MP Ilan Shor, but he is not in jail either. In 2019, Șor escaped from Moldova and is hiding in Israel. Although Chisinau has repeatedly asked the Israeli authorities to extradite him, the request remains unanswered to this day.

9 years in search of the stolen billion. Where is the billion?

Lilia Zaharia-Cravcenco, TI-Moldova, Executive Director

The money trail has been found, but the money unfortunately remains unrecovered. The bank fraud investigation process has been compromised from the start. Kroll’s investigations have resulted in nothing but extra budget expenditure. The reports of the parliamentary committees of inquiry have also failed. The individuals and institutions involved in the bank fraud led the investigation down the wrong tracks. On top of that, we also had a politicised prosecution service. Things are moving slowly. None of the figures in the files associated with the billion theft are being punished. It is true that, with the help of external partners, international sanctions have been applied against Ilan Shor and Vlad Plahotniuc, but that is not enough. The people want justice to have its say: those who stole should be punished accordingly and the money should be recovered. It is unacceptable that the key person involved in this bank robbery is pulling the strings from outside and trying in various ways to destabilise the situation in the country and compromise its European course in order to escape from prison. The Moldovan authorities must react quickly and effectively to all these attempts… The thieves must be put in jail and the money returned to where it was stolen.

Ilie Chirtoaca, Executive Director, Legal Resources Centre of Moldova

Where’s the billion? Even after 9 years we still don’t have a clear answer. With 60 suspects and none behind bars. Ilan Shor, even if convicted, avoids serving his sentence. The status of other characters, such as Platon and Plahotniuc, is still unclear, and the involvement of the former Prosecutor General in this complicated story (Platon’s escape) generates more questions than answers. The impact of this looting on the economy has been devastating, amounting to over 12% of national GDP. The authorities launched a strategy in 2018 to recover the stolen funds, but so far the amounts recovered are minuscule compared to what was stolen. This situation points to the major challenges of corruption and the shortcomings of our judicial system, which means that a) reforms in the justice and prosecution sector must be deep, not just cosmetic, and b) public attention must be kept on these phenomena.Ignoring them and their perpetrators, who are now trying to win the sympathy of voters through “chances” and other satellites, could lead to a repetition of such situations. This constant attention is crucial to prevent such incidents recurring in the future.

Anatol Țăranu, political analyst

Money, once stolen, rarely comes back. And in these 9 years the problem has been not so much the return of the money – even if it is quite important – but to punish the perpetrators, so that this does not happen again in the future. But neither has been achieved… There are a lot of people who are concerned that the truth should not come out, so as not to create precedents for the corruption that is still going on today. And that’s because justice reform is stagnating. Shor is trying to turn his criminal case into a political one. We have seen how much speculation was made during the local elections. The fact that we can’t put a convict in line and he continues to play an important role in politics means that we are only declaratively part of a democratic system and that we have a very long way to go in the fight against grand corruption. The billionaire dossier, as it stands, is the most eloquent argument that corruption in Moldova is highly entrenched and justice reform is not moving. When we have clarity on the stolen billion, then we will be able to say that justice reform in Moldova has taken place or at least moved on.