Searches in cases of embezzlement of foreign assets and money laundering in the field of road repair: Five people were detained by NAC and PCCOCS
Officers of the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC) and prosecutors from the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) today have conducted 53 searches throughout the territory of the Republic of Moldova, within criminal cases initiated on acts of embezzlement of foreign assets and money laundering, committed by two or more persons, using their official position.
According to the case materials, the NAC and PCCOCS are targeting decision-makers from the state-owned enterprises S.A. "Drumuri-Criuleni", S.A. "Drumuri-Cimișlia" and S.A. " Drumuri-Căușeni", who, as public figures and members of the working groups responsible for the supervision and final reception of road rehabilitation works, allegedly implemented a criminal scheme to defraud the public budget.
According to the accumulated evidence, they allegedly systematically demanded, accepted and received undue financial means from various economic agents, in exchange for favouring them in the process of executing public works. Among the actions investigated are: fictitious subcontracting, the use of inferior quality construction materials purchased at overvalued prices, reporting of unperformed works, falsification of laboratory reports, registration of invoices for unperformed works and the unjustified introduction of additional works in the contracted projects.
The investigations also revealed an additional scheme, implemented by the management of S.A. " Drumuri -Criuleni", aimed at rigging public procurement procedures. By imposing restrictive and unjustified criteria, certain economic agents were favoured, which led to the prejudice of the public budget. At the same time, the sums of money obtained through illegal activities were subjected to money laundering operations. These were used to purchase luxury goods, such as cars, real estate and other assets of considerable value, both in the Republic of Moldova and abroad.
As a result of the procedural actions of August 6, 5 people were detained. Following the searches, documents, contracts and financial means likely to have come from illegal activities, relevant to the criminal case under examination, were seized.
We remind that any person shall be presumed innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is rendered.