A cadastral engineer from the PSA, investigated by the NAC and the AP, sentenced to 5 years in prison. CARA findings served as the basis for the confiscation of assets worth 5 million lei A cadastral engineer from the ASP, investigated by the CNA and the PA, sentenced to 5 years in prison. The ARBI

The Chisinau Court, Buiucani, pronounced the sentence regarding a cadastral engineer from the Public Services Agency (PSA), being incriminated with the commission of five episodes of abuse of office, as well as regarding a man accused of complicity in one of the episodes of abuse. The court ordered regarding the cadastral engineer, through partial cumulation of the sentences, a sentence of 5 years in prison (of which 2 years and 6 months were suspended for a probationary period of 3 years), with the deprivation of the right to hold the position of cadastral engineer for a period of 5 years. Until the sentence becomes final, the preventive measure – preventive arrest – was applied to him.

The court also ordered the confiscation of 4 construction plots, 1/5 of another plot, two residential houses and an unfinished construction (with a total value estimated at 5 million lei), as assets resulting from the commission of the crime. The seizure applied to these assets was maintained, in order to ensure special confiscation. During the criminal investigation, the CARA under the NAC provided support to the criminal investigation body by conducting parallel financial investigations to identify and freeze criminal assets. As a result of the investigations conducted, the anti-corruption officers within the CARA of the NAC identified 8 real estate assets (5 land and 3 buildings) worth 9,479,550.46 lei held by the accused as the beneficial owner. Subsequently, the findings made by the CARA served as the basis for the confiscation of the respective assets for the benefit of the state.

According to the evidence accumulated by the National Anti-corruption Centre and the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office, the defendant, working as a cadastral engineer within the Chisinau Territorial Cadastral Service of the Public Services Agency, allegedly implemented a criminal plan to illegally obtain land in the municipality of Chisinau, located in the Centru and Rîșcani sectors, which belong with property rights to the local public administration. He, by prior agreement with other individuals, allegedly drew up cadastral plans with distorted data regarding the existence in nature of certain constructions and their location on public property land.

Subsequently, in the absence of confirmatory documents regarding the authorization of these constructions and by falsifying the final acceptance documents of the real estate, he allegedly made unfounded entries in the Real Estate Register, on the basis of which he requested the Chisinau Municipal Council and the Chisinau City Hall to sell, at the regulatory price, the land related to the respective constructions (non-existent or illegally built on public property land). The requested price was much lower than the market value that could be obtained by the City Hall by selling the land at auction. These actions caused considerable material damage to the Chisinau City Hall, estimated at approximately 3 million lei. Throughout the trial, the defendants denied committing the acts, but the court, analyzing the evidence for a year, established the guilt of the cadastral engineer.

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

Note: The person accused of committing a crime is presumed innocent as long as his guilt is not established by a final court decision of conviction.