A chain of restaurants in Chisinau was subjected to searches on Monday, October 24, in a criminal case, started on money laundering. Officers of the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) and anti-corruption prosecutors, together with the National Investigation Inspectorate (INI) carried out criminal prosecution actions and detained for 72 hours one of the actual beneficiaries of the restaurant network.

According to sources of Ziarul de Gardă, the raids took place at the “Taxi Blues” restaurant chain, a company targeted in a similar case in 2017.

ZdG called a number listed on the restaurant chain’s website for comment. The person who answered our call said they could not provide a response. “No, no, sorry, for now, we’re not giving anything (comments ed. note),” she said.

According to the prosecution materials, between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2022, three economic agents, forming a network of restaurants, allegedly created a scheme through which they committed tax evasion and money laundering respectively.

According to the CNA, the economic agents did not issue tax receipts to customers, creating parallel accounting and evading payment of taxes to the state. During the period in question, the beneficiaries allegedly collected more than 60 million lei, which they then legalised.

“Today, the homes, transport units owned and premises belonging to the economic agents suspected of money laundering were searched. CNA officers and prosecutors seized objects relevant to the case, including information carriers, draft notes and other documents, indicated in the search warrant. One person was detained for 72 hours,” the CNA announced.

Any person is presumed innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is rendered.

Anticorupție.md wrote in 2019 that the owner of the “Taxi Blues” restaurant chain, Serghei Enciu, accused in a criminal case for tax evasion of almost 6 million lei, urged voters to vote for the PDM in the parliamentary elections of that period. Enciu pasted election posters of the PDM in the places he owned, and posted a message on social media in which he invoked his arguments as to why the party “should” have been elected, such as tax amnesty and lowering the rates of some taxes.

The criminal case against Enciu was filed in the autumn of 2017 after several raids were carried out at the “Taxi Blues” network. According to prosecutors, Sergei Enciu allegedly damaged the state with 5,760,000 lei as a result of not declaring 18 million lei in income.