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Home / CARA / Press releases / Exclusive interview with Serghei Carapunarlî, about the seizure, freezing and confiscation of illegally obtained properties
Exclusive interview with Serghei Carapunarlî, about the seizure, freezing and confiscation of illegally obtained properties
09.12.2022
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Every week, our society is informed about illegally obtained luxury goods and properties, which the state has managed to seize as a result of investigations in criminal cases. Few, however, know about the determining role of the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) in identifying and preserving them.
Serghei Carapunarlî, director of the CARA, presented in an extensive interview details about the Agency's activity and how the recovery of criminal assets takes place.
According to Serghei Carapunarlî, until the creation of the CARA, people who obtained huge incomes from illegal activities, after serving their criminal sentence, could use these assets. After 2017, when the Agency was created, things took a different turn. Today, among the properties seized by the CARA are bank accounts, cars, aircraft, real estate or even yachts.
Seizure also applies to cultural assets: paintings, sculptures, musical instruments. Thus, it is necessary to ensure special conditions to preserve these things.
Serghei Carapunarlî also revealed that in the Republic of Moldova there are cases where criminals invest illegally obtained money in cryptocurrencies.
“We have cases of asset seizures in cryptocurrencies. In this sense, we have also established a specific wallet, we manage them. But, unfortunately, currently, the Republic of Moldova does not have regulations in the field of cryptocurrency," says the head of the CARA.
The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency is a specialized autonomous subdivision within the National Anticorruption Center. The CARA was founded in 2017, it aims to carry out parallel financial investigations as well as the seizure of criminal assets. In the five years of activity, the CARA has managed to identify and make available, in the country and abroad, goods and assets worth more than 6 billion lei.
This material was made with the support of the Soros Moldova Foundation, in partnership with the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency, an autonomous subdivision under the NAC. The foundation does not influence the editorial policy of the Realitatea Press Group.