Former defector deputy Serghei Sîrbu, under investigation in a criminal case for illicit enrichment, is provisionally released under judicial control. A decision to this effect was issued in mid-June by the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal. The information was provided to Ziarul de Gardă by Mariana Cherpec, spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG), who said that the preventive measure was applied for a period of 60 days.

Prior to the preventive measure, Sirbu was under house arrest. The former MP is accused of committing offences under Article 330/2 and Article 325(2) of the Criminal Code – illicit enrichment and active corruption. Previously, ZdG wrote about the multimillion-dollar wealth and business dealings of former defector MPs under criminal investigation for illicit enrichment.

Serghei Sîrbu, who left the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) in 2012 and has since moved through several political parties, was found by the National Integrity Authority (ANI) to have unjustified wealth worth 1.9 million lei accumulated between 2016 and 2019. The financial resources were found on Sîrbu’s bank accounts, having been deposited in cash. He also failed to declare income totalling more than 1 million lei, included erroneous data about income obtained in the form of donations and cash he lent to an individual. He also allegedly held hundreds of thousands of lei and tens of thousands of euros in cash, which he misstated, according to the statement.

The thirteen former MPs suspected of illicit enrichment are former communist MPs who in December 2015 left the PCRM parliamentary faction and subsequently created a social-democratic platform, which then shortly after joined the Democratic Party of the Republic of Moldova in parliament. On 2 February 2022, prosecutors from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and officers from the Intelligence and Security Service raided the homes of 13 former MPs. The raids were carried out in the framework of the investigation into the illicit enrichment of 13 former members of the Moldovan Parliament and concerned 47 real estate assets and 13 cars.