The manager was beaten

“Mohnatchin entered the restaurant, driving us away and saying he was the boss. The manager of the restaurant, Iulia Culeasov, tried to stop him, but he crushed her with both hands and punch her in the breast. A couple celebrating their son’s birthday got scared and called for help,” Melania Ostrovscaia, the head-waitress of the restaurant recalled.

As a result of medico-legal expertise, the doctor V. Frumusachi issued some legal acts which confirmed the fact Culeasov had been maltreated.

The same day the hotel’s owners cut the supply of electricity and water to the restaurant, when a party of 100 guests were due to be arriving for a function. Three fridges full of fish, caviar and sausages were ruined, resulting in the party being cancelled and Culeasov left with a large amount of inedible food.

On July 7 the shareholders of the joined stock company gathered in the restaurant in order to protest against the abusive actions of the hotel’s administration.

Voronin – a fright for shareholders

Until now the shareholders believed that the owner of the hotel was Oleg Voronin, the president’s son, and some people who attended meetings would say that they were protected by the authorities and that nobody could object to their actions. Some shareholders were also warned that they could face problems with the president, meaning they kept silent. The hotel has been sold many times, each time by a person protected by the state who has never shared the profits with the other shareholders.

“I have attended each of the shareholders’ meetings. Each time I thought I would get the dividends which belonged to me. I got nothing. They didn’t even give me the money for the trip, and I came from Comrat. There are many shareholders like me. They are retired, disabled people from all over country. They come to Chişinău to receive their dividends, and they go back home with nothing,” Elena Mocanu, a shareholder of the joint stock company Hotel Chişinău, complained. She is retired now, having formerly worked at the hotel for 30 years as a chambermaid.

“Even if the shareholders insist to be paid, Mohnatchin refuses. He said that if we don’t like something we can sell the shares. The price which he offers is very low – two lei per share. I have been working all my life for 3,000 lei! He has us wrapped around his little finger!”

“During the 43 years I’ve worked at the Hotel Chişinău, I have seen many directors, but I have never seen such a disaster as today,” Ostrovscaia said.

Life Contract

“I have reached the day when, as the wife of a colonel, I am humiliated by a bandit,” the owner of the restaurant said of Mohnatchin. Culeasov believes that the director also got angry because she had refused to pay 7,000 euros each month for the rent of the restaurant, while Mohnatchin pays only 15,000 lei per month to LLC First Hotel, the official owner of the hotel, for the rent of the whole building. The manager of the restaurant referred to the sum of 5,000 lei per month, a figure which is stipulated in the contract of the building nr. 162 from 2002; the contract was signed for a term of 99 years.

Also on Monday during the meeting, the shareholders were told that Voronin had nothing to do with the hotel. It was a trick, a fright. Yet, who is the real owner and who should be punished for the violations committed in the last 10 years since 60% of the hotel was privatised?

“We want to know who the real owner is to decide our separation from this space of the hotel. How long can this building be sold without our agreement?” Culeasov said on behalf of all of the shareholders.

Vulnerable director

We couldn’t find out what the opinion of the director was and if the shareholders’ claims are true. On Monday Mohnatchin refused to meet journalists. On Tuesday, at 11a.m., he had agreed to give a statement to the press, yet, as on Wednesday, the director was too busy, according to his guard.

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