Synthesis of the National Anti-corruption Centre: Seizures of illicit assets worth over 73.6 million lei applied by CARA and convictions in corruption cases
The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) under the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC) applied, in the last week, seizures of assets of illicit origin worth over 73.6 million lei, in the execution of a request for international legal assistance from Italy. The assets were frozen in files targeting crimes of money laundering, theft, fraud and appropriation, alienation or concealment of pledged, frozen, seized or confiscated assets. The seized assets include 2 residential and 4 non-residential buildings, 5 residential and 4 non-residential premises, receivables, 27 means of transport, 2 agricultural lands and 3 lands for construction. At the same time, previously applied seizures, worth over 9 million lei, were confirmed by court decisions.
In the reporting week, the Chisinau Court, Buiucani headquarters, pronounced convictions in three cases investigated by the NAC. In the BEM case, two people were found guilty of money laundering in particularly large proportions and fraud in large proportions, the material damage being estimated at approximately 4.4 million lei. In two cases regarding the financing of a political party by an organized criminal group, a former president of the Călărași territorial office of a former political party was sentenced to 4 years in prison, and a man, investigated by the NAC, APO and INI, received the same sentence, with the confiscation of over 1.4 million lei for the benefit of the state.
Over the course of a week, the NAC’s criminal investigation officers initiated 13 criminal cases, with several corruption-related cases being forwarded to court. Currently, one person is in the NAC’s detention centre, and six others are being held in prisons under preventive arrest.
During the same period, the NAC participated in the 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC CoSP11), held in Doha, Qatar, where the Republic of Moldova’s progress in preventing and combating corruption was presented. The delegation was represented by the NAC Director, Alexandr Pînzari, along with the heads of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Anti-Corruption Office, as well as a group of anti-corruption officers specialized in preventing and combating corruption, recovering criminal assets, and international cooperation.
In terms of corruption prevention, the NAC's Legislation Department submitted 31 legislative expertise reports to the authors, 142 integrity records were issued, 55 calls were received at the National Anti-Corruption Line, and 1,774 materials were registered in the institution's office.