{"id":4168,"date":"2020-07-18T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zdg.md\/en\/?p=4168"},"modified":"2020-07-21T21:22:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T18:22:26","slug":"the-unfinished-and-undeclared-three-level-house-of-the-leader-of-the-socialist-faction-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zdg.md\/en\/the-unfinished-and-undeclared-three-level-house-of-the-leader-of-the-socialist-faction-in-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Unfinished” and Undeclared Three-Level House of the Leader of the Socialist Parliamentary Faction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Corneliu Furculi\u021b\u0103 is the head of the Socialist Party parliamentary faction and a close person to the presidential family. ZdG analyzed his declaration of assets and found some inaccuracies.  Firstly, the deputy and his family do not live in a 67 square meters apartment in Chi\u0219in\u0103u, as he claims, but in a three-level house in a Chi\u0219in\u0103u suburb. The house is built on the land registered on the name of the deputy\u2019s 26-year-old daughter. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG journalist scrutinized the deputy\u2019s recent declarations of assets but the house wasn\u2019t mentioned past 2017 when it was included as an \u201cunfinished construction\u201d. According to the neighbors, Furculi\u021b\u0103 and his family have been living there for more than a year. When Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s wife saw ZdG reporters she avoided entering the house and made several circles around the area. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by ZdG, Furculi\u021b\u0103 claims that he doesn\u2019t live there permanently. Asked from what financial sources they built the house, the deputy told us that this is a “family investment” and that “more persons” contributed to the construction. Furculi\u021b\u0103 is originally from Sadova, the same village as President Igor Dodon. The deputy has a long-standing relationship with Dodon. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 is the founder of Exclusiv Media, the media holding affiliated to the Socialist Party. Previously, Rise Moldova wrote that Exclusive Media received over \u20ac1 million from an offshore company registered in the Bahamas before the presidential. Subsequently, in March-April 2016, Petru Burduja, deputy of the Socialist Party and Corneliu Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s wife withdrew from the company’s accounts over \u20ac1.02 million (20 million lei), invoking this as restitution of financial aid obtained from individuals. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103, who heads the faction of the Socialist Party in the Parliament, was first elected deputy in 2014. Since he became deputy, the family\u2019s official income is consists of the salaries of the deputy and his wife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s Undeclared House <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 filed his last declaration of assets in March 2020. The deputy indicated that he owns only a \u200b\u200b67.3 square-meter apartment, located on Gheorghe Asachi Street, in the center of Chi\u0219in\u0103u. In his declaration of assets, Furculi\u021b\u0103 also included two cars, a Skoda Kodiaq and a Toyota LC150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG found that the Furculi\u021b\u0103 family also owns an impressive house, in addition to the goods declared. The house is located in Durle\u0219ti, a suburb of Chi\u0219in\u0103u. The deputy didn\u2019t declare the house in his declaration of assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The house is built on two land plots. The deputy declared the land-plots until he decided to donate them in 2018. The deputy’s family owns one land plot since 2010. The land plot has an area of \u200b\u200b0.0538 hectares. In 2017, the deputy’s family bought the second land plot, next to the first construction plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the extracts from the Property Records of the Territorial Cadastral Service, the deputy’s eldest daughter, Cornelia Furculi\u021b\u0103, aged 26, entered into possession of the two land plots in 2018. She is currently abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG went on the spot and found a house, apparently finished. The house was erected on the plots owned by the Furculi\u021b\u0103 family. According to the Property Records of the Territorial Cadastral Service, no real estate was registered on the two land-plots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the evening of July 13, ZdG tried to talk to Furculi\u021b\u0103. We noticed one of the cars, declared by the deputy, approaching the gates of the house in Durle\u0219ti. Ludmila Furculi\u021b\u0103, the deputy\u2019s wife, was behind the wheel. However, when she saw us, she changed her mind and did not enter the gate of the household, making several circles around the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next morning, we went to Durle\u0219ti again. After waiting for a while, we saw the deputy coming out of the gate. Asked to specify why he did not declare the house in his declaration of assets, Furculi\u021b\u0103 said that he donated the plots to the children, and the house is still under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is an authorization. The house is not yet put into operation. The children are still working. The owner of the house will take care to put it into operation, legally. We will decide who will be the owner,\u201d<\/em> Furculi\u021b\u0103 explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While one of the neighbors greeted the deputy, and another told us that the Furculi\u021b\u0103 family has lived in the house in Durle\u0219ti for more than a year, the socialist claims that it is not their permanent dwelling place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I came to check if everything is fine,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG asked the deputy about the neighbors\u2019 statements. The deputy said that he only comes to Durle\u0219ti from time to time and that he actually lives in his apartment in Gheorghe Asachi Street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, the neighbors cannot know everything. I do not live here,\u201d the leader of the Socialist Party parliamentary faction insisted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After this statement, we also contacted one of Furculi\u021b\u0103’s neighbors from the apartment on Gheorghe Asachi Street. Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s neighbor told us that his apartment is under surveillance, but the deputy has not lived there for a long time. The neighbor also mentioned that the deputy comes to the apartment occasionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Family Investment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked from what financial sources they built the house, the deputy told us that it is a family investment and that more persons participated in the construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy declaration of assets and personal interests includes my wife’s and my salaries and they are quite good.<\/em> If you compare incomes and expenses, you will see that we still have money left. Apart from that, I am the founder of several companies. I can afford it,\u201d<\/em> Furculi\u021b\u0103 pointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG asked Furculi\u021b\u0103 about the two cars, he declared and which his family owns and uses. The deputy told us that the two cars are the property of the company Exclusiv Media, of which he is the founder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI assure you that in terms of declarations of assets and personal interests, everything is perfect,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> concluded the leader of the Socialist Party parliamentary faction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jumping from Private Field into Politics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 is originally from Sadova village, C\u0103l\u0103ra\u0219i district, the center of Moldova, the same village as President Igor Dodon. The residents from Sadova told us that Furculi\u021b\u0103 comes from a modest family; his father was a teacher, as well as his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the deputy’s CV, Furculi\u021b\u0103 worked in the private sector before becoming a deputy in the Socialist Party parliamentary faction. For 12 years, he held several positions. He was a lawyer, a financial director, a commercial director, and an administrator. He did not indicate the companies he worked for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 and Dodon know each other for a long time. The deputy was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the C\u0103l\u0103ra\u0219i Cannery factory, managed by relatives of the presidential family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indirectly, the deputy is also linked to the Hunter Elit Club company. Until 2017, the company had its legal headquarters in Furculi\u021b\u0103’s apartment on Gheorghe Asachi Street, where the company Exclusiv Media is actually registered.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hunter Elit Club was founded by Oleg Teterea, former socialist deputy and one of Dodon’s oldest friends, and by Ghenadie Merineanu, the Dodon’s brother-in-law. In 2013, Veaceslav Anghel, who was also an associate of Exclusiv Media, became the owner and administrator of the company. Previously, the company concluded with Moldsilva leases of several hectares of forest. In 2013, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the termination of these leases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZdG asked Furculi\u021b\u0103 about his previous jobs and the companies he worked for, but the deputy told us that it was the private filed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a private field and it targets not only my activity but also the activity of the companies where I worked. Therefore, those entrepreneurs, with whom I was a partner, do not want to be involved with politics, appear in newspapers, and so on. It is a private domain,\u201d<\/em> declared the Socialist Party deputy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Media Empire Managed by the Furculi\u021b\u0103 Family<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 is the founder of Exclusiv Media, which holds the media empire affiliated to the Socialist Party. Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s wife, Ludmila Furculi\u021b\u0103, manages the company. She is a colleague of Galina Dodon, the president’s wife, who is the financial director at Exclusiv Media. Recently, Tatiana \u021aaulean, the wife of the Socialist Party member Ion Ceban, mayor of Chi\u0219inau, was also employed at this company.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The company was registered in October 2011, one month before Dodon, Zinaida Grecean\u00eei, the President of the Parliament and member of the Socialist Party, and Ceban left the Communist Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the company was managing the Russian-language newspaper Argumenty i Facty. Later, the company took over several media projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exclusiv Media manages the NTV Moldova station, a television that actively promotes the interests of the Socialist Party. The company is also the owner of the Russian-language newspaper Argumenty i Facty. In 2017, the company launched the entertainment project ExclusivTV, which broadcasts entertainment shows of the Russian TV station THT-Comedy. Accent TV is one of the partners of Exclusiv Media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Previously, Veaceslav Anghel, a fellow villager of Dodon was the founder and administrator of the company. Anghel ran for November 2014 parliamentary elections on the list of the Socialist Party. In the February 2019 parliamentary elections, Anghel was the candidate of the Socialist Party in Constituency no. 20, but failed to win the constituency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His functions were later taken over by Corneliu Furculi\u021b\u0103, as well as by the socialist Petru Burduja before Furculi\u021b\u0103’s wife would take over the administration of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103 and Petru Burduja, a Socialist Party member, took over the management of the company from Anghel. And later on, the two Socialist Party members passed the management of the company to Furculi\u021b\u0103\u2019s wife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furculi\u021b\u0103’s Wife, Dodon\u2019s Wife, and the Mayor\u2019s Wife are Colleagues<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Ludmila Furculi\u021b\u0103 received at Exclusiv Media a salary of over 11,000 euros (215,000 lei), which is almost 2,000 euros (40,000 lei) more than her husband received as deputy. In the previous years, when Ludmila Furculi\u021b\u0103 was employed at Exclusiv Media, her salary was higher than that of her husband, yet it was lower than that of Dodon\u2019s wife, who reported an official income of about 20,000 euros (395,000 lei) in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Exclusiv Media founded Exclusiv Sales House, a company that has the right to place advertising on TV stations, managed by Exclusiv Media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a short time, the advertising market controlled by Casa Media Corp, affiliated to Moldova\u2019s oligarch, Vladimir Plahotniuc, ended up in the hands of Exclusiv Sales House, which in 2018 had a turnover of about \u20ac2.04 million (40 million lei) and over 51,000 euros (1 million lei) profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exclusiv Media has its headquarters on Ion Neculce Street, downtown Chi\u0219in\u0103u. In 2015, the company purchased from the JLC company an area of about 370 square meters. Two years later, Exclusiv Media bought another area of 120 square meters at the same address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction had been concluded with Eurobloc company, the owner of the first area bought by Furculi\u021b\u0103’s company. The studios of the NTV Moldova television station are also located on Ion Neculce Street, next to the Exclusiv Media headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to Exclusiv Media, Furculi\u021b\u0103 is a sole shareholder at Poliactiv company, whose licensed activity is in construction. Ludmila Furculi\u021b\u0103 is the administrator of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n