A former MP, investigated by the NAC, APO and SIS, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison. Over 206 million lei were confiscated for the benefit of the state

The Chisinau Court, Buiucani, found a former Member of Parliament guilty of four counts of falsifying reports on the financing of the electoral campaign and the political party, accepting illegal financing from an organized criminal group.

The court ordered, by partial accumulation of the sentences, imprisonment for a term of 7 years and 6 months, with the deprivation of the right to hold public office and to exercise activities related to the accounting and financial organization within political parties for a term of 5 years. Also, to execute the sentence, the preventive measure was applied - preventive arrest, being announced as wanted.

At the same time, the court ordered the special confiscation of over 206 million lei, used and intended for the commission of the crime.

According to the evidence managed by the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC), jointly with the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (APO) and the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS), the former MP, running on behalf of a political party for the position of mayor of Balti municipality in the local elections of November 21, 2021, allegedly received the amount of 9,752,000 lei from a criminal group. Of this amount, 740,464.50 lei were fictitiously entered into donation forms in the names of 104 individuals, who in reality did not contribute financially. This false data was included in the reports on the financial management of the electoral campaign, by substituting and hiding the identity of the donors, the volume of funds accumulated and used. The reports were subsequently personally signed by the former MP and submitted to the Central Electoral Commission.

At the same time, as vice-president of the Political Party, he would have knowingly accepted the financing of the party in a total amount of 195,518,013 lei - illicit funds used for the maintenance and activity of the party, in order to promote the interests of the organized criminal group.

Of this amount, approximately 8.5 million lei were transferred under the control of the criminal investigation bodies, and another approximately 9 million lei were detected and seized following searches.

The sentence can be appealed to the Central Court of Appeal within 15 days.
Note: The person accused of committing a crime shall be presumed innocent as long as his guilt is not established by a final court decision.