Seizures of 23,500,000 lei on the assets of 15 accused from Chisinau and Cahul, applied by the CARA of the NAC at the request of PCCOCS

At the request of PCCOCS prosecutors, through the collaboration of the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency of the National Anti-corruption Centre, in relation to 15 members from Chisinau and Cahul of an organized criminal group, accused of smuggling and money laundering, seizures worth over 23,500,000 lei were applied on their houses, land and cars and those of their relatives.

As announced in March and August 2024, the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) and the National Police Investigation Inspectorate with Europol and Interpol, members of the organized criminal group allegedly smuggled several assets into Moldova, after breaking into homes and jewellery stores in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria since 2017, from where they stole: rings with precious stones, earrings, bracelets, chains, pendants, coins, precious stones of various sizes, luxury watches, weapons, bicycles and other goods. Then, to lose track of them, they were sold on the black market, and the money was laundered by buying other assets (houses (including those worth over 2,500,000 lei), apartments, land, luxury cars (including Mercedes GLE, BMW).

The 15 defendants are aged between 24 and 64, including 3 women, including close relatives of defendants on whom some of the assets purchased with the money from the sale of stolen items outside the country were registered. We note that, according to data provided by the member states of the European Union through Europol and Interpol, some of the defendants had previously served prison sentences (for robbery, group theft, robbery, possession of false documents) in France, Germany and Austria.

Now, once the PCCOCS prosecutors requested the investigation judge to apply the seizures, after sending criminal case in court, the seized assets could be subject to confiscation for the benefit of the state.

The criminal prosecution continues, during which the persons benefit from the presumption of innocence, according to the law.

The CARA specifies that the process of recovering criminal assets will be finalized once the court adopts the confiscation decision. The final step of the recovery process or the sale of the confiscated objects is carried out by the bailiff institution and the State Tax Service.