Banca de Economii Case: another administrator sentenced to 6 years in prison for money laundering and ordered to pay 5.4 million lei

The Chisinau Court, Buiucani, found the administrator of a company guilty of committing the crime of money laundering on a particularly large scale. The court ordered a 6-year prison sentence, with the preventive measure - preventive arrest, being maintained until the sentence becomes final. The civil action filed by BC "Banca de Economii" SA was admitted, and the amount of 2,700,000 lei was ordered to be collected from the defendant's account, as material damage caused by the crime. At the same time, the court also ordered the special confiscation of the value of the money resulting from the commission of the crime for the benefit of the state in the amount of 2,700,000 lei.

The nominated criminal case was disjoined from the primary criminal case in 2023, being referred to justice in May 2024. According to the evidence presented in court, accumulated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office jointly with the National Anti-Corruption Centre, during the period 19 – 28 December 2011, the defendant, in co-participation with other persons, allegedly committed the crime of money laundering, in the amount of 2,700,000 lei, by operating several transfers on different accounts, including those of the company managed by the defendant, thus seeking to disguise the money coming from a loan taken through fraud from Banca de Economii in 2011, in the amount of 4,400,000 lei.

Currently, the defendant is in pretrial detention, having been extradited from Ukraine on April 4, 2024. Although he denied committing the acts throughout the examination of the case, the court assessed the evidence and established his guilt in committing the incriminated crime.

The sentence can be appealed to the Chisinau Centre 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.