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Home / CARA / Press releases / 5 years of the CARA. „The Agency has enormous potential that needs to be harnessed”: mentioned the director of the NAC
5 years of the CARA. „The Agency has enormous potential that needs to be harnessed”: mentioned the director of the NAC
30.03.2022
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The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) under the National Anticorruption Center is celebrating 5 years of activity today and it has managed to record notable results since its creation. The Agency has identified goods and properties derived from crimes both in the country and outside, reporting identified assets worth over 6.5 billion lei during this period.
Having as competence the parallel financial investigation of more than 50 types of crimes, including tax evasion, smuggling, organized crime, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, corruption, money laundering, etc., the number one priority of the CARA remains recovery of money embezzled from the bank fraud. Together with the prosecutors, the Agency managed to identify dozens of intermediaries and the real beneficiaries of the goods, resulting from fraud and to apply seizures worth about 3.4 billion lei.
These include real estate and luxury cars, aircraft, yachts, share capital, bank accounts, etc. They were found both on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and abroad. Many countries have responded to requests for letters rogatory from the national law enforcement agencies by seizing the property of extras on their territory. At the same time, the Agency notes cases of stagnation in some jurisdictions, but which are to be accelerated, also through diplomatic efforts in the field of institutions responsible for justice and external relations.
The CARA cooperates with multiple similar entities and financial intelligence units in the country and abroad, operating through secure data and information exchange networks. This collaboration is to be extended and strengthened within the National Crime Recovery Program - a strategic document that will include around 20 national institutions, regulatory authorities, experts, civil society and international organizations.
In his address to the CARA, the director of the NAC, Iulian Rusu, mentioned that the Agency is the youngest subdivision of the Center, but it has an enormous potential to become the business card of the institution. "In 5 years of activity, you have achieved a lot, you have built partnerships, you have identified new communication platforms and you have teamed up with the prosecutors on the most important cases. Having a difficult task to accomplish, the CARA needs, first and foremost, a lot of support and trust. Together with our development partners, state institutions, associative sector representatives and donors, we are making joint efforts to help the Agency accomplish its primary burden of compensating the state and all aggrieved persons, following the commission of crimes, generating illicit profits. I strongly believe that we will succeed. On this occasion, I wish you success and perseverance in everything ", said the head of the NAC.
On March 30, 2017, the Parliament voted the Law on the creation of the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency. The CARA became fully operational a year later, after several changes to the legal framework. Therefore, the institution of "recovery of criminal assets" was introduced in the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the process of recovery of criminal assets was divided into 4 successive stages: prosecution of criminal assets and accumulation of evidence; freezing of criminal assets; restitution (return) of criminal property.