The Agency for the Recovery of Criminal Assets (ARBI) within the National Anticorruption Center applied seizure on 803 goods and assets worth over €133.6 million (2,614,862,781 lei). However despite the good results presented in ARBI’s activity report for 2019, Transparency International declared that unfortunately, the process of recovering the fraudulent money is still sluggish. 

According to a press release, last year, the Agency received, to analyze 139 subjects, investigated in 67 criminal cases for committing different crimes. The delegations were received from the specialized prosecutor’s offices, the territorial ones from Comrat, Bălți, Șoldănești, Chișinău, Nisporeni, Orhei, the National Anticorruption Center, the General Border Police Inspectorate and the Șoldănești Police Inspectorate.

In the top of the goods seized by the Agency are means of transport (201), followed by agricultural land (140), bank accounts (66), non-residential constructions (60), residential (59), land for construction (58), aircraft, shares, and other assets. 

According to the procedure, the goods are capitalized, and the money from their sale is transferred to the state budget.

However, after releasing its 2019 Corruption Perception Index, Transparency International declared that despite massive investments in creating ARBI, the process of recovering the fraudulent money continues slugging. 

Initial efforts were taken in the Parliament to elucidate the fraud in the banking system, but the assets of the persons involved remained in their control.