The Republic of Moldova has effective mechanisms for tracking and seizing of assets resulting from crimes, regardless of the form in which they are kept. Over the past five years, in addition to securities, real estate, agricultural land, the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) has seized assets including cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency generation systems. The total value of virtual currencies and cryptocurrency generation systems is almost 5 million lei, and their use is prohibited until the final court decision is issued.

Following investigations to identify and recover criminal assets, in the last five years, the CARA seized almost 5 thousand assets, the estimated value of which exceeds the sum of 5.6 billion lei.

In addition to cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency generation systems, the Agency has seized assets in the form of shares, debts and social capital the total estimated value of which is over 2.1 billion lei, as well as constructions worth almost 1.2 billion lei.

Parallel investigations conducted by the CARA

From 2017 until now, the number of delegations (empowerment sent by prosecutors and criminal investigation officers to the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) to carry out parallel financial investigations) has increased, with a total of 883 delegations issued. Most of them were requested by the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 235, 210 empowerments were sent from the National Anticorruption Center, the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office sent 170 requests and the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases - 151 requests.

The process of asset recovery appropriated through crime is very complex and involves the efforts of several representatives of public institutions in the country: specialized prosecutor's offices, courts, criminal investigation institutions, and others.

Throughout the investigative process, the CARA has the right to decide to freeze the identified criminal assets, in accordance with the provisions of art. 10 para. (2) from Law no. 48/2017 of 30.03.2017 regarding the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency, to access national databases for free in the activity it carries out and to file civil actions in the interests of the state and legal entities.