The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) announced on Wednesday, September 7, that it has started the procedure for the completion of the criminal prosecution in the absence of former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) Vladimir Plahotniuc in the bank fraud case.

On 22 August, the prosecutor in the case submitted a request to the investigating judge of the Chisinau Ciocana court, asking for consent to complete the criminal proceedings in Plahotniuc’s absence.

According to the AP, at the hearing on 6 September, one of Plahotniuc’s lawyers, after having seen the materials presented by the prosecutor, submitted a request to lift the exception of unconstitutionality of the new provisions recently introduced in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allow the completion of the criminal proceedings in the absence of the accused. Thus, at the hearing on Thursday, 8 September, the investigating judge of the Ciocana Court of Chișinău is expected to issue a decision on whether to admit or reject the application.

In this case, for which consent was requested for the completion of the criminal proceedings, Vladimir Plahotniuc was charged with creating and directing a “criminal organisation, fraud and money laundering”. According to prosecutors, the episode incriminated against him refers to the period 2013-2015, when Plahotniuc received in his accounts, through resident companies founded by Ilan Shor through intermediaries, financial means of more than $39 million and 3.5 million euros, which originated from bank loans fraudulently obtained from BC “Unibank” SA, BC “Banca Socială” SA and BC “Banca de Economii” SA.

In the criminal case, a seizure was applied on assets whose beneficial owner is Vladimir Plahotniuc in the amount of over one billion lei.

Vladimir Plahotniuc left Moldova in June 2019, after the party he led, PDM, handed over the government to a coalition formed by ACUM Bloc and PSRM, which broke up in November 2019. In March 2020, the US Embassy in Chisinau confirmed that Plahotniuc is on US soil.

The PA requested Plahotniuc’s extradition in June 2020, when the former democratic leader was located in the US, and in September 2020, when he was identified in Turkey, respectively, but no responses to these requests from both countries have reached the Chisinau authorities.

On 1 October 2021, the AP submitted a repeated request to the Interpol National Central Bureau in Moldova asking the General Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization INTERPOL to issue an international wanted persons notice for Plahotniuc.