A man accused of knowingly accepting political party financing from an organized criminal group was sentenced to 4 years in prison and a criminal fine

The Chisinau Court, Buiucani, accepted the plea agreement, concluded during the criminal investigation phase, by a man accused of knowingly accepting political party financing from an organized criminal group. The court ordered a prison sentence of 4 years, a fine of 200,000 lei, and deprivation of the right to exercise accounting and financial organization activities in political parties for a period of 7 years. The prison sentence was suspended for a probationary period of 1 year. At the same time, the funds in the amount of 20,000 dollars and a mobile phone recognized as the corpus delicti were transferred to the state.

The criminal case was separated from a criminal case that is currently in the criminal investigation phase. The defendant cooperated with the criminal investigation bodies and admitted that, in June 2023, he was instigated by the leader of a criminal group to create or take over the leadership of a pro-European political party. The aim was for this party to participate in local elections so that the group they were part of could maintain and strengthen its control over politics and society. For this, he was promised a financial reward of 10,000 euros per month and 100,000 dollars if the party obtained at least 5% of the votes.

In this way, the defendant decided to take over an already existing political party - the "Democratic Action Party" (PAD), which was later renamed the political party "Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe" (ALDE), within which he was appointed Secretary General, being responsible for the accounting and financial organization of the party. Thus, in order to consolidate the respective political party, at the end of August 2023, he knowingly accepted funds in the amount of $ 452,700, the equivalent of 8,110,658.98 lei, from the organized criminal group.

The criminal investigation was carried out by the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office jointly with the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC) and the Intelligence and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova (SIS).

Currently, two more persons are being investigated in the criminal case of the criminal investigation, including the leader of the organized criminal group.

The sentence is final, but can be appealed to the Central Court of Appeal within 15 days.

Note: A person accused of committing a crime shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court decision.