Former director of the Public Services Agency, Serghei Răilean, was detained for 72 hours in a case of abuse of office. He is accused of facilitating the issuance of identity cards and passports on behalf of several people in Vladimir Plahotniuc’s entourage, in clear violation of established procedures.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases, Răilean was detained for abuse and exceeding official duties, following searches conducted by the institution prosecutors jointly with the officers of the Intelligence and Security Service, on the morning of Wednesday, November 17.

“There is a reasonable suspicion of committing several crimes related to abuse and exceeding the duties during the Public Services Agency leadership, including documenting several officials, especially the citizen Plahotniuc Vladimir,” said the prosecutors.

According to prosecutors, during the period Răilean led the Public Services Agency, he facilitated the issuance of identity documents – identity cards and passports on behalf of several people in Vladimir Plahotniuc’s entourage, in clear violation of established procedures, including in the absence of persons. The actions were committed in favor of the criminal organization “Plahotniuc.”

During the period when Vladimir Plahotniuc and Serghei Iaralov obtained documents with a different identity the director of the Public Services Agency was Serghei Răilean, about whom the press wrote that he would be the godfather of the eldest son of the former Prime Minister, Pavel Filip.

In 2006 Railean was appointed financial director at Tutun-CTC company where, since 2008, Pavel Filip was general manager. In 2011, after Pavel Filip became Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Serghei Răilean was appointed General Manager of “Registru” State Information Resources Center, an institution subordinated to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. When Filip became Prime Minister of Moldova, Răilean was appointed director of the new agency under the Government.

Serghei Răilean’s name also appears in the incident from the illegal hunting in “Pădurea Domnească”. Sorin Paciu was mortally wounded in a hunt that took place in the “Pădurea Domnească” Nature Reserve on December 23, 2012. The hunt was attended by several high-ranking officials, including the then-Prosecutor General, Valeriu Zubco, and the director of Public Services Agency, Sergiu Răilean, dismissed by the Government, who kept his post after the incident.