The investigation of the Billion Case has revealed ties between a company benefiting from illegally obtained loans and the family of Parliamentary President Zinaida Greceanîi. The company in question, Alsvit-Vin (formerly registered as Alsvit-Print), is just one of forty companies under investigation by the National Anticorruption Center in relation to the illicit acquisition of financial resources from Moldova’s Banca de Economii. 

In 2011, Alsvit-Vin benefited from a loan of around €2 million (39.3 million lei) from Banca de Economii. The company was to repay the loan by 2015, but so far the loan has not been fully repaid. 

Although there are several documents proving the involvement of Alexei Greceanîi – the husband of the President of the Parliament – in the management of the companies that contracted and benefited from the money, the National Anticorruption Center claims that Greceanîi’s role in contracting the 2 million euro loan from Banca de Economii has not been established. 

“At this stage of the investigations Alexei Greceanii’s implication in contracting the loan of around 2 million euros (39.3 million lei) from Banca de Economii was not established,” the National Anticorruption Center told ZdG, when asked about the involvement of Alexei Greceanîi in the management of the company that was then Alsvit-Print. 

“The loan was contracted on March 4, 2011. Alexei Greceanîi became co-founder of Alsvit-Vin on April 7, 2011, for a period of 3 months. On July 22, 2011, he resigned as founder,” the National Anticorruption Center explained.

In other words, according to the Anticorruption Center, Greceanîi was not involved in contracting the loan.

The credit has not been refunded in full so far

In the last few years, more information and accusations emerged regarding the involvement of the Greceanîi family in Banca de Economii fraud. The topic was picked up once again after Zinaida Greceanîi became President of the Parliament. Meanwhile, Ruslan Flocea, a former counselor of hers and of Moldova’s President Igor Dodon, became director at the National Anticorruption Center – the institution authorized by law to investigate these crimes. 

When ZdG asked the National Anticorruption Center if there is a case in operation investigating the circumstances of the credit obtained by Alsvit-Print from Banca de Economii, as well as the potential role of the Greceanîi family in the transaction, the institution admitted that it has two criminal cases under its management that are investigating the actions of the company affiliated with the Greceanîi family.

“The National Anticorruption Center criminal prosecution body is investigating a complex criminal case, started in November 2018, targeting over 40 companies suspected of illicit acquisition of financial means from Banca de Economii,” the National Anticorruption Center said. “These include the company Alsvit-Vin, formerly registered as Alsvit-Print, which, in 2011, benefited from a loan of around 2 million euros (39.3 million lei). The money had been offered for the purpose of capital investments, and goods amounting to around 2.1 million euros (41.25 million lei) were pledged.” 

The institution claims that although the payment for the loan was due in 2015, so far, it has not been fully repaid.

A. Greceanîi becomes co-founder of Alsvit-Vin 

“The preliminary conclusions are based on the following data: the loan from Banca de Economii was contracted on March 4, 2011. Alexei Greceanîi became a co-founder of Alsvit-Print (currently Alsvit-Vin) on April 7, 2011 for a period of 3 months. On July 22, 2011, Alexei Greceanîi resigned as founder,” the National Anticorruption Center explained. 

Since May 3, 2019, the National Anticorruption Center has also been managing a second criminal case against Alsvit-Print. In addition to the investigation on the illicit acquisition of financial means from Banca de Economii, the 40 companies (Alsvit-Print included) are now being investigated for money laundering as well. 

“In view of the fact that the criminal prosecution is in the preliminary stage, the National Anticorruption Center criminal prosecution body requested that the Office for Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering, as well as the National Anticorruption Center analytical directorate carry out a detailed analysis of all the transactions and the damages caused to the banking entities and to establish the actual beneficiaries of the contracted money, ” the National Anticorruption Center said.

How Alsvit-Print received the credit from Banca de Economii

Alsvit-Print was registered in September 2002. Then, on March 4, 2011, the company received a credit worth around 2 million euros (39.3 million lei) from Banca de Economii. 

According to the contract, which was previously made public, the credit was for a period of four years and was to be repaid by March 2015. The money was granted for capital investments, and most of it – around 1.8 million euros (35.5 million lei) – was used to purchase a 308,000 square meter construction in the village of Cojușna. 

The village of Cojușna, in the Strășeni district of Moldova, is known for the Cojușna Wine Factory – an enterprise which also took several credits from Banca de Economii in 2007-2008. The company later went into insolvency – and then bankruptcy – and the bank exercised its right of pledge and took possession of all the Cojușna Wine Factory’s goods. 

At the time Alsvit-Print signed its contract with Banca de Economii in 2011, the company also purchased a vineyard plantation, two real estate properties in Cojușna, a 38.5 square meter property in Chșinău and two cars, including a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. 

Alsvit-Print spent an additional sum of about 195,867 euros (3.8 million lei) on the purchase of raw materials and winemaking accessories, such as bottles, packaging and labels directly from Banca de Economii. The bank had obtained these goods from the Cojușna Wine Factory.

Greceanîi Alexei was technical director at the Cojușna Wine Factory before he became co-founder at Alsvit-Vin 

A month after the transaction, on April 7, 2011, the company changed its name from Alsvit-Print to Alsvit-Vin and its legal address from an apartment in Chișinău to the territory of the Cojușna Wine Factory. 

At this point, Alexei Greceanîi officially became a co-founder of the company. Previously Alsvit-Print took over Cojușna Wine Factory. Back then, Alexei Greceanîi was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Cojușna Wine Factory and its technical director.

Previously, several politicians, including Chișinău former mayor-Dorin Chirtoacă, Bălți former mayor- Renato Usatîi and Iurie Chirinciuc, published a number of documents, showing that Alexei Greceanîi’s links with Alsvit-Vin (formerly Alsvit-Print) and the Cojușna Wine Factory were much closer than they first appeared. 

On January 13, 2011, two months before Alsvit- Print contracted Banca de Economii loan, a Trust Deed type contract was also signed. The contract shows that Alexei Greceanîi owned half of the shares of the Handows Trading Limited company in Cyprus, which, at that time, was the owner of Alsvit-Print. Greceanîi shared the Cypriot company with Ala Mândrilă – she now owns the company, which is currently in full bankruptcy proceedings. 

According to the same documents, the Cyprus company was represented in Moldova by Veaceslav Timotin, the current administrator of the insolvency of Aroma and the husband of Mariana Timotin, a member of the Superior Council of Magistrates. 

ZdG telephoned Veaceslav Timotin in an attempt to ask him about the Cyprus off-shore transactions in 2011, but he refused to comment  

“I don’t remember anything. Goodbye,” he said, without even hearing the subject of the call.

Banca de Economii can’t sell the pledged goods from Alsvit-Vin for several years 

The loan Alsvit-Print (currently Alsvit-Vin) contracted in March 2011 was not repaid according to the schedule established with Banca de Economii. So in April 2012, the bank – which was under state control at the time – requested to exercise the right of pledge on the assets owned by Alsvit-Print. To this day, however, the bank has not exchange those pledged assets for credit. 

In 2015, Alsvit-Print entered the insolvency process, at the request of the Cojușna Wine Factory, for a debt of around 47,369 euros (919,000 lei). 

Today, the bankrupt company Alsivt-Vin is managed by interim administrator Simion Hortolomei. He avoided talking to ZdG about the current state of the company and its past.

For several years now, Banca de Economii administration, which is in the process of liquidation too, has been trying to sell the goods of Alsvit-Vin, in order to recover the value of the loan granted, but with no success. 

The last auction was organized recently, on September 20, 2019, but the most valuable asset, the building of the wine factory, was not sold. Initially, Banca de Economii requested around 824,704 euros (16 million lei) for the building and for the fixed assets used in the production process of the wine factory.

“Nobody came to the auction. Initially, the price of goods (the cars and the wine collection) was higher, but with the passage of time and because there were no buyers, it decreased. The objects of lower value had been marketed before,” said Banca de Economii representatives dealing with the sale of the pledge.

The Alsvit-Vin credit obtained in 2011 from Banca de Economii is included in the Kroll reports as not yet reimbursed. 

On March 18, 2013, Banca de Economii signed a contract ceding to Roseau Alliance, a U.K. company affiliated with Ilan Shor, non-performing loans worth about €51.5 million (1 billion lei). In the same year Rosseau Alliance took over Alsvit-Vin debt, like other loans. 

Shor – whose companies are also named in the Kroll Report – was first detained in May 2015 and then sentenced in 2017 to seven years and six months imprisonment for fraud and money laundering. 

The court ordered that the sentence enter into force only after it becomes final. In the meantime, Shor fled the country. Leaving Moldova through the Chișinău International Airport sometime between June 14 and 17, 2019, without passing through border controls. 

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“My family has nothing to do with the factory, Banca de Economii, or Alsvit.

On June 25, 2015, Zinaida Greceanîi, the president of the Parliament and member of the Socialist Party appeared on the Interpol show on local channel TV 8. 

When asked about her husband’s affiliation with the Billion Case, she declared:

“My husband, Alexei Greceanîi was a director at this Cojuşna wine factory. Can a technical director arrange a loan? 

The factory received the credit. But the factory has owners. Alexei Greceanîi has nothing to do with it. Yes, he was member of the Board of Directors (of the Wine Factory) for a very short time, then he resigned. 

I have documented myself and I can tell you. The factory paid the loan to Banca de Economii until 2010, in due time. 

In 2010, the factory went bankrupt. Why? Through different debts that were … maybe some raider attacks. Definitely he (A. Greceanîi) has no connection with the company Alsvit-Print. 

In January 2011, Alexei Greceanîi resigned as technical director of the Cojuşna Wine Factory. My family has nothing to do with the factory, Banca de Economii, or Alsvit. If there is anything, someone should tell me. There are legal bodies. Invite me and tell me.”

Victor MOŞNEAG, v.mosneag.zdg@gmail.com