Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, his wedding godfather Ion Rusu, as well as Veaceslav Platon, former deputy, and businessman, were convicted by the court in the billion cases. The decisions were supported by the final judgments of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The judges not only imposed prison terms but also ordered to reclaim from the three of them around €73.2 million (1.4 billion lei). However, no assets from Filat and Rusu, who in the meantime were released from prison, were confiscated. 

As for Platon’s case, even though the amount ordered by the courts was collected, the case is still pending and the state faces the risk of having to pay hundreds of millions lei as damages.

Other cases, featuring widely known names such as those of Ilan Shor, Chiril Lucinschi or Grigore Gacikevici, have been pending for years in ordinary courts or in courts of appeal, with no enforcement sentences being passed; subsequently, the state cannot claim any damages. 

ZdG analyzed all the cases identifying how much did the state manage to recover from the previously seized assets.

Caravita case

In November 2015, Ion Rusu, former Prime Minister Vlad Filat’s wedding godfather, was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering. According to the same sentence, Caravita Co and Business Estate Investments, companies managed by Ion Rusu were confiscated. Following the confiscation, Banca de Economii had to receive 2.79 million euros, money collected by the state from selling the two companies. At the same time, the judges disposed to liquidate the company Caravita Co.

Later on, the Supreme Court of Justice reduced the prison sentence to three years and four months, but the amount of money to be collected for Banca de Economii remained the same. The seizure was applied to all the assets belonging to the two companies managed by Rusu, which later were to be sold to recover the damage caused to Banca de Economii.

Ion Rusu served his sentence and over a year ago was released from prison. And although almost four years have passed since the Chișinău Court of Appeal issued the enforcement decision the damage to Banca de Economii has not been collected.

The Caravita Co goods were put up for sale by auctions as late as in August 2018 and the process is infinitely delayed. This creates delays in collecting the money for Banca de Economii and diminishes the value of these goods. Subsequently, the state will collect less money from its sale.

The Caravita Empire put up for auction

On September 15, 2016, the Commercial Court from Anenii Noi district, in the center of Moldova, released a decision regarding Caravita Co’s sale. The Court appointed Victor Magnet as liquidator, responsible for the selling of Caravita Co goods under seizure.

Due to court proceedings that delayed the trial, the first auction was organized only on August 6, 2018. ZdG analyzed the auction announcements published by Magnet in the Official Monitor and found that the company Caravita Co had an impressive portfolio of properties. The properties are located throughout the whole country.

Subsequently, Caravita Co had properties in the north-east of Moldova, Rezina district, in the eastern part of the country, Criuleni district, in the south part of Moldova, Căușeni and Ștefan Vodă districts, and in the center of Moldova, Anenii Noi district.

According to the announcement in the Official Monitor, Caravita Co had over 1,800 hectares of agricultural land, of which about 850 hectares of arable land, over 700 hectares of nut orchards, 200 hectares of vines, 100 hectares of cherry and plum orchards and building plots with a total area of ​​over two hectares.

All these lands were split into lots and were first put up for auction on August 6, 2018, for around €9.2 million (176.6 million lei). Most of the agricultural lands owned by Caravita Co are located in Zolotievca (Anenii Noi), which also includes the villages Larga and Nicolaevca.

Together with the lands, they auctioned several buildings belonging to Caravita Co, including administrative buildings, garages, warehouses or former farm premises.

The starting price of all these goods constituted €4.9 million (93.8 million lei). The complex of reception, cleaning, drying and storage of cereal crops, with the capacity of 40,000 tons, located in Pervomaisc (Căușeni) was estimated as the most expensive property, at almost €4.5 million (87 million lei).

The fleet of cars, trucks, vans and agricultural machinery was put up for sale as well, in total 77 units, the most expensive being a Case Patriot 3,330 agricultural machine, initially auctioned for 188,000 euros (3.6 million lei). The cumulative value of the 77 units at the auction on August 6, 2018, constituted 746,000 euros (14.3 million lei).

Taken together, the three types of goods (land, buildings and movable property) were estimated at €14.8 million (284.7 million lei) at the first auction sale.

Following one of the auctions, organized by the liquidator Victor Magnet on July 19, 2019, Agro Bio Management company became the owner of the complex of agro-industrial buildings from Zolotievca (Anenii Noi), previously owned by Caravita Co company, which was in the process of liquidation. Together with the agro-industrial complex, Agro Bio Management Company bought a residential house nearby.

ZdG went to Zolotievca, where the two companies have their legal address, and where most of the land and buildings that used to belong to Caravita Co are located, to see what is happening now with these goods.

First, we went to the real estate sold to Agro Bio Management at the auction in July 2019. Although the person we met at the gate told us that it is not Caravita here and that it is an absolutely different company, ZdG found that Agro Bio Management is, in fact, a company related to Caravita Co.

Specifically, Gheorghe Rusu, who currently is the sole shareholder of Agro Bio Management, is Ion Rusu’s brother while Ion Buștiuc, who in the past was director of Caravita Co, is now the company administrator.

Buștiuc is the one who, in 2016 and 2017, represented Caravita Co at the Chișinău Court of Appeal and at the Supreme Court of Justice in the company liquidation case.

Agro Bio Management and Caravita Co transferred their legal address to Zolotievca in April 2014, together with a third company – ABM Eco Technology. Until then, all three had their address in the IPTEH building in Chișinău, which belonged to the family of former Prime Minister Vlad Filat.

We asked Ion Buștiuc, the administrator, if Agro Bio Management will participate in other auctions and if he intends to buy the agricultural lands that belonged to Caravita. He claims that his company cannot take over everything because it has no money.

He said that the company participated in the auction, like everyone else, and bought what it needed. He added that they would love to participate in the following auctions, but they have no money.

Buștiuc acknowledged that, after being released from prison, Ion Rusu works in agriculture, this time as an employee of the Agro Bio Management Company.

ZdG concluded that several goods previously owned by Caravita Co were purchased by a company run by the same people who were in charge of Caravita Co in the past.

ZdG asked the liquidator of Caravita Co, who is also responsible for organizing the auctions how was it possible for the same persons who were running Caravita Co managed to buy real estate that belonged to it.

“According to the Civil Code and the legislation in force, my obligations are to sell the goods at a most advantageous price and as quickly as possible.

As long as the person applied for participation, paid the deposit, came to the auction, followed the bidding steps and paid in full, I personally, as well as the members of the commission, did not see any impediment or something that would disfavor the speedy development of the liquidation procedure.

By the order of June 25, 2018, to ensure greater transparency to the entire process (although the legislation in force does not provide for this), we ordered the formation of the Bidding Commission for the sale of the Caravita Co goods.

The Commission comprised representatives of the largest, guaranteed creditors, including the state representative, specifically Magnet Victor, liquidator of Caravita Co (in liquidation process); the creditor’s representatives – the State Tax Service, Banca de Economii (in the process of liquidation), Victoriabank and the secretary of the commission (with no voting right) – lawyer of Caravita Co (in the process of liquidation),” the liquidator told us.

Among other Caravita properties, the liquidator Victor Magnet auctioned 226 hectares of agricultural land in the village of Zolotievca, whose starting price at the auction on August 6, 2018, was 688,000 euros (13.2 million lei).

The 226 hectares came into the ownership of CVC Expert company, founded by Veaceslav Codreanu (80 percent), who currently runs it, and Natalia Codreanu (20 percent). The legal address of CVC Expert company is in Codreanu’s house in Chișinău.

Codreanu is also a financial director at DAAC-Hermes, controlled by the millionaire Vasili Chirtoca, currently a member in the Chișinău Municipal Council, elected on the lists of the Socialist Party.

In addition, Chirtoca and Codreanu, together with Vasili Chirtoca’s wife and two other partners, employees in the DAAC group, are shareholders of the DAAC group.

Auctions at sale prices

Most of the properties were not sold at the first auction, hence 12 repeated auctions were organized, of which five were declared null because no participants registered.

The most recent auction, announced in the Official Monitor, was to take place on December 17, 2019, but, according to liquidator Victor Magnet, this time again the auction did not take place.

The law stipulates that at repeated auctions the bidding price of the auctioned goods is lower than the price indicated at the first auction. Thus, at the auction to be held on December 17, 2019, the price of the movable goods (cars, trucks, and agricultural machinery) put up for sale was 40 percent lower than that at the auction in August 2018, while the price of immovable property (constructions for varied purposes) went 33 percent down.

At ZdG request, Victor Magnet informed that, so far, goods worth about 930,000 euros (17.84 million lei) were auctioned. In addition to the 226 hectares sold to CVC Expert and the warehouse sold to Agro Bio Management, 32.2 hectares of land in Solonceni (Rezina) and another 7.5 hectares in the village of Volintiri (Ștefan Vodă) were sold.

Also, 42 of the 77 transport units were sold: cars, vans, trucks, tractors, trailers and other agricultural equipment, many of which came to the ownership of Agro Bio Management.

There remained unsold, however, hundreds of hectares of walnut, plum and cherry orchards, as well as arable land or vineyards.

The villagers say that, in recent years, Agro Bio Management took care of the land and the orchards.

“They are still the same Caravita, they only changed the name,” a resident of the village Larga, Zolotievca commune told us.

“There is a collaboration contract there, as Caravita owns multiannual plantations, plum and walnut orchards, and, some time ago, when Victoriabank still owned them, there was a company that agreed to invest in maintaining these orchards so that their value is preserved. Respectively, they are the ones who work the lands so that it does not turn into fallow land,” the liquidator Victor Magnet told us when we asked him what happened to the lands, vineyards, and orchards after seizure application and putting them up for sale. 

Banca de Economii got no money

Following the auctions, 560,000 euros (10.75 million lei) of creditors’ debts were extinguished out of the 930,000 euros (17.8 million) that was obtained, and another (4.48 million lei) were reserved to settle other debts, the liquidator of Caravita Co claims.

The rest of the amount, approximately 135,000 euros (2.6 million lei), was to cover the expenses related to the liquidation procedure and falling within the management, distribution of the assets, as well as for the remuneration of the liquidator, Magnet informed us.

However, nothing came into the BEM accounts, which was in liquidation process, because, as the liquidator claims, according to the provisions of the Civil Code, arrears payments of former employees of the company in the process of liquidation get first priority, as well as the payment of taxes and others duties to the national public budget.

“According to the table of creditors, Banca de Economii debt is registered under the letter D. Thus, no money was paid to Banca de Economii, because the creditors registered under the letter C were not paid in full – for example, the State Tax Service, National House of Social Insurance,” mentions Victor Magnet in his reply to ZdG. In his reply Magnet referred to Article 233 of Moldova’s Civil Code, which establishes the order in which creditors receive their money.

Also, Banca de Economii got nothing into its accounts from Business Estate Investments, the other company listed in Ion Rusu’s sentence.

The liquidator of Business Estate Investments who had to sell its assets is Sergiu Tanasiev. After selling the company’s assets Tanasiev had to repay the debts to the creditors, including Banca de Economii.

ZdG asked the liquidator about the status of the company’s assets. Tanasiev told us that, although he initiated a few auctions, they did not take place due to a lack of participants.

“Nothing was sold. The assets in question are pledged to Victoriabank, and the law provides that the mortgaged goods are sold with the consent of the mortgagee. He sets my ceiling, I put them to auction, but so far nothing has been sold. Yes, Banca de Economii is a validated creditor to us. There are other creditors as well, but Victoriabank and Banca de Economii are the biggest ones,” Tanasiev told us.

Therefore, not even one cent, out of the €2.7 million (52 million lei) that were to be collected for Banca de Economii from Ion Rusu, Caravita Co and Business Estate Investments, reached the bank.

Vlad Filat case

In June 2016, the first court sentenced former Prime Minister Vlad Filat to nine years in prison with execution for passive corruption and influence peddling. The courts also ordered special confiscation of immovable property and social quotas belonging to him, amounting to €24.6 million (472.5 million lei). The court also ordered the confiscation of several luxury cars and real estate, including the IPTEH office building in the center of Chișinău.

Filat was released from the penitentiary on December 3, 2019. He served only four years and two months of the whole sentence benefiting from a reduction of the sentence due to the bad conditions of detention.

On January 29, Chișinău Court of Appeal kept in force, definitively and irrevocably, the decision of the first court of Filat’s conditional release.

However, the goods previously seized weren’t converted into money. Initially, the file reached the bailiff Oleg Ungureanu. However, he explains that he did not succeed with the sentence execution and sent the file to the State Tax Service, the institution that was to collect the money obtained from the sale of Filat’s assets.

“The law was modified and these types of executions were removed from the jurisdiction of the bailiffs. For this reason, the enforceable documents were also returned,” Oleg Ungureanu told us.

Thus, we asked the State Tax Service to inform us of the current state of Filat’s assets and whether any money was recovered from the €24.6 million (472 million lei). However, the State Tax Service directed us again to the bailiff Oleg Ungureanu.

“Regarding the case of Mr. Vlad Filat, the enforcement document was ex officio sent to the judicial executor by the court,” was the short answer of the State Tax Service for ZdG.

We contacted the bailiff Oleg Ungureanu repeatedly and he told us that the entire file was sent back. He also said that the State Tax Service contested in court his act by which the file was sent to the institution and that there is a file in the court regarding this issue. On the court’s official page there is a dispute between the State Tax Service and bailiff Ungureanu.

On February 5, 2020, Chișinău Court of Appeal published a ruling, which forces Oleg Ungureanu to execute the enforcement document from Filat’s sentence. The decision can be subject to appeal at the court, and Ungureanu states that he will make a decision in this regard after examining the court’s motivation.

ZdG asked Vlad Filat if he knew anything about the goods for which the special confiscation was ordered in his case. Filat told us that he didn’t know anything but he is confident that his case will be re-examined.

“In my conviction sentence, as it was, the damage was not established. In the public space, there was frequent reference made to the fact that we did not pay the damage though the special confiscation was applied.

It is worth to point out that special confiscation was applied to certain assets that I acquired in the years 1994-1999, I refer to immovable and movable assets. However, this special confiscation, from the moment the decision came into force, was to be carried out by the state institutions.

I knew that Criminal Assets Recovery Agency was created not so long ago, but I admit, I do not know who is in charge, more than that, I have no contact with these goods,” Filat told us.

“I am sure that my case will be re-judged on the basis of the ECtHR statements, and I will prove my innocence in a fair trial. 

To those who are in a hurry to sell the confiscated goods, I would recommend not to rush too much for later may come the pecuniary liability for the damages caused,” former Prime Minister told us, noting that the ECtHR examines his applications as a priority.

“This implies a faster procedure. It has been a year and almost a month since this decision was made, and the deadline has to be reasonable, it cannot be too long until we get the statements. If the statement meets the necessary conditions, we will submit a request for review to the Superior Court of Justice,” says Filat.

Veceslav Platon’s case

On April 20, 2017, Chișinău Court sentenced Veaceslav Platon to 18 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. The sentence was maintained by the hierarchically superior courts.

The court also ordered to collect from Veaceslav Platon’s accounts for the Banca de Economii around €45.2 million (869.22 million lei), equal to the damage caused by his crime.

The court applied seizure on a series of assets and shares of several companies presumably controlled by Platon through intermediaries.

Compared to Filat and Rusu cases in Platon’s case, the state managed to collect the money from the seized goods faster. This was due to the sale of the stock packages that Platon owned, through intermediaries, to Moldova Agroindbank and Moldindconbank, two of the largest banks in Moldova.

Thus, on October 2, 2018, the Public Property Agency, on behalf of the Government, sold 41.09 percent of the share capital of Moldova Agroindbank for €23.5 million (451.53 million lei).

And on March 18, 2019, it sold  63,89 percent of the share capital of Moldindconbank for €39.8 million (764.04 million lei).

Taken together, the money obtained from the sale of the shares of the two banks amounts to €62.4 million (1.21 billion lei). Out of this sum, Banca de Economii obtained €45.2 million (869 million) while the rest of the money is kept on a special deposit account.

Roman Talmaci, the bailiff who handled this case, confirmed that the amount of money claimed in the sentence is fully recovered. However, he refused to give us more details, claiming that the information is confidential. Talmaci also said that several appeals were filed by Platon’s lawyers concerning the bailiff’s acts, which are to be examined in the courts.

Although in Platon’s case, the damage was fully recovered, some goods and several companies that the prosecutors attributed to his ownership remained under seizure. Some of these assets are pledged for various loans, most of them contracted from Moldindconbank, and most of the companies that owned these goods entered the insolvency procedure in recent months.

Platon’s appeal and the criminal case that may overturn the situation

On November 14, 2018, the Superior Court of Justice issued a decision maintaining Platon’s sentence released by the lower courts, including the confiscation of the assets.

Platon’s lawyers filed a second appeal to the Superior Court of Justice’s decision. Subsequently, a hearing on this case was fixed at the Superior Court of Justice on March 19, 2020.

If the judges who review the second appeal will change Platon’s sentence or decide to send the case back to trial, and later the magistrates will decide upon a milder sentence or will acquit Platon, then the Government could be forced to pay millions of euros as damages.

At the same time, two weeks ago, the General Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that it initiated criminal cases in which several prosecutors and decision-makers within the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office are suspected of interference in the conduct of criminal prosecution when investigating the bank fraud.

According to Ion Crețu, one of Platon’s lawyers Adriana Bețișor and Andrei Baeșu, who handled the case in which Platon was convicted, are two of the prosecutors who appear in these cases.

According to Crețu, the case was started after Platon’s lawyers filed complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding the two prosecutors.

Criminal cases with no outcomes

There are other cases pending for years in courts of appeals or in simple courts, with no enforcement sentences, hence the state can’t claim any damages.

Ilan Shor case

Deputy Ilan Shor, former chairperson of the Board of Directors of Banca de Economii and the main figure in the Kroll reports, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison by the first court, but released until the court of appeal pronounced its decision.

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After almost three years and dozens of postponed hearings, the case is still at Cahul Court of Appeal, with no sentence passed.

Meanwhile, Ilan Shor, who appears in another case related to fraud at Banca de Economii, managed to sell some of his businesses, including the duty-free shops, leaving the country. He is currently announced in the international search.

Money collected by the state in Shor’s cases – NOTHING.

Chiril Lucinschi case

In April 2018, former deputy Chiril Lucinschi was sentenced by the first court to five and a half years in prison accused of having received money from companies affiliated with Ilan Shor, money that came from Banca de Economii and the Banca Socială.

After the Chișinău Court of Appeal issues a final decision, the punishment will be applied. However, the court didn’t yet pronounce the decision regarding Lucinschi’s case.

However, in this case, the court ordered a special confiscation on the defendant’s financial means and assets for the money laundering crime. The court applied seizure to several goods amounting to 440,100 dollars and 278,242 euros.

Money collected by the state – NOTHING.

Gacikevici group case

The Gacikevici group case, which includes the former president of Banca de Economii, Grigore Gacikevici, and other former decision-makers from Banca de Economii is at Chișinău Court.

The last hearing in the case was held on January 24, 2020. According to prosecutors, the damage caused by the Gacikevici group to Banca de Economii amounts to over €53.5 million (1.03 billion lei).

Money collected by the state – NOTHING.

Vladimir Plahotniuc case

Vladimir Plahotniuc, former leader of the Democratic Party and deputy, who fled the country as soon as his party lost power, is accused by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office of money laundering in very large proportions.

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According to prosecutors, during 2013-2015, he created a criminal scheme with the purpose of transferring, acquiring, owning and using assets of which he knew were illicit income.

According to the investigation, Plahotniuc with some intermediaries set up several companies that organized the circulation of about $18 million and €3.5 million.

The materials of the case demonstrate that Plahotniuc was aware that the money constituted illicit financial means, obtained through non-performing bank loans from Banca De Economii, Unibank, and Banca Socială. 

At the same time, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced on October 30 about the seizure of assets and bank accounts, in the amount of around €2.8 million (55.4 million lei), in the cases for money laundering in large proportions, in which Plahotniuc is targeted. 

Among the goods placed under seizure are the Nobil hotel and the headquarters of Plahotniuc’s televisions in Ghioceilor Street, downtown Chișinău. Finpar Invest, affiliated with Plahotniuc, owns both buildings. Previously, however, Finpar Invest managed to dispose of more than €25.9 million (half a billion lei) worth of properties, including the Global Business Center building.

On October 28, 2019, Plahotniuc was announced in international and national search. The cases are only at the criminal prosecution stage, and they have not yet been sent to court.

Money collected by the state – NOTHING.

Anatolie EŞANU, anatolie.esanu@gmail.com