Money stolen from the banking system of Moldova can be recovered in two ways: criminal and civil, and for this it is necessary to develop a new Strategy - the Prosecutor General's Office.
This was stated by the Prosecutor General's Office, noting that one of the main issues on the agenda of central public bodies, parliament, government, president, prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies concerns the process of returning funds stolen from the banking system. The importance of this issue is also due to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding between Moldova and the EU on macro-financial assistance, signed in Chisinau on July 21, 2020 and in Brussels on July 23, 2020, ratified by the Moldovan Parliament on September 10, 2020. The Prosecutor General's Office drew attention to the fact that so far not a single state agency has provided the Prosecutor's Office with a comprehensive approach to this issue and a specific plan for fulfilling the conditions arising from the Memorandum, even if, in fact, the activities to implement the Strategy functionally go beyond the activities of the Prosecutor's Office. Summarizing the information for a future report on the progress of the process of returning stolen funds from the banking system, regarding the latest results of the ongoing investigation of the case of "banking fraud", the prosecutor's office stated that the Strategy for the return of funds stolen from the banking system was actually developed during the period " of the captured state ”, in unclear circumstances and by unknown persons. The Prosecutor General's Office noted that, although it is alleged that this strategic document was prepared in June 2018 by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the National Anti-Corruption Center and the Agency for the Compensation of Criminally Acquired Property (ARBI), and then publicly presented by the former Attorney General Eduard Harunjen and the former Deputy Prosecutor for anti-corruption Adriana Betisor, he was never registered with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office or the Prosecutor General's Office, NAC or the Agency for the Compensation of Criminally Acquired Property, was not approved by any joint order, and no traces of work with this document were found. It is noted that the document was prepared outside the prosecutor's office and the two other specified institutions, as well as not by those who signed and got down to work. “Without being signed by any subject, this strategic document did not acquire the status of an official document, therefore it is not clear how it subsequently appeared in some documents adopted by the parliament and the government, including the Moldova-EU Memorandum. These circumstances continue to be investigated and clarified during the investigation of the criminal case, the results of which we will report additionally, ”the Prosecutor General's Office said. They emphasized that, in addition to the fact that this Strategy is methodologically oriented in a certain direction, since, in fact, the entire process of investigating banking frauds was aimed at protecting the interests of Vladimir Plahotniuc (who was not a target and in general was not mentioned in this document together with Vladimir Filat, Veaceslav Platon and Ilan Sor, mentioned at the time as beneficiaries of the fraud), which indicates that the planned activities exceed the functional powers of the prosecutor's office, NAC and the Agency for the Compensation of Criminally Acquired Property. As noted in the Prosecutor General's Office, the measures to be taken, monitored and controlled by targeted institutions and bodies (NBM, Ministry of Finance, MFAEI, Government, liquidators, executors, etc.), go beyond the criminal field (criminal prosecution and court), being focused exclusively on civil, commercial, banking, executive aspects (collection of loans, interest, fines, organization of auctions for the sale of assets of banks involved in fraud, litigation on forced debt collection and direct or subsidiary liability in insolvency proceedings, liquidation of economic agents, joint stock companies, national and foreign banking institutions, as well as some shareholders / BEM, BS, UB, BNM, Victoriabank, PrivatBank Latvia, Moldova Agroindbank, Moldindconbank, filing claims for enforced debt collection in accordance with court decisions, submission of notifications to the criminal investigation authorities on violations of criminal law for admission to the issuance of loans, etc.). Based on the above-mentioned aspects related to the competence of the prosecutor's office and the importance of the subject, the Prosecutor General's Office believes that the approval of this Strategy cannot be logically and legally entrusted to the prosecutor's office, respectively, at the present time, it cannot serve as an official basis for the activities of the prosecutor's office, government, parliament and other state bodies in collecting fraudulent money from the banking system. At the same time, the prosecutor's office believes that for the efficiency of the process of recovering stolen money, the state needs a new vision and a new comprehensive strategic document, but the development and implementation of such a strategy goes beyond the powers of the prosecutor's office. Analyzing the problem in all its complexity, the Prosecutor General's Office concludes that the national authorities have so far adhered to a purely formal approach in this matter, and the prosecution is responsible for the entire process of recovering funds stolen as a result of fraud, prosecutions in the case and whose functional powers are too legally limited to cover the full range of actions required in this direction, in fact, determine the results below the limit of society's expectations and the conflict situation between the first-level authorities, as well as the risks of discrediting before external development partners. The Prosecutor General's Office believes that the created situation is, in particular, the result of an ineffective dialogue between the authorities, and in this context the Prosecutor's Office presents a number of proposals. The ministry noted that the issue regarding the recovery of funds stolen as a result of bank fraud, in accordance with the terms of the Moldova-EU Memorandum, and the actions to be taken by the Moldovan authorities, was raised before the Prosecutor General's Office only by the acting Prime Minister Aureliu Ciocoi, who recommended the prosecutor, together with the competent authorities, update the Strategy for the recovery of funds stolen from the banking system, accelerate criminal investigations by diversifying international cooperation and providing information to the public every six months. In this regard, in order to streamline the process of recovering stolen funds, on May 18, 2021, the prosecutor's office developed and, together with the National Anti-Corruption Center, the State Tax Service, the Service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering, signed an order approving the Mechanism for recovering funds stolen from the banking system, a normative act, which established the actions and sub-actions necessary for the implementation of these institutions, executors, deadlines and indicators of progress, which was immediately informed by the head of government. However, as the Prosecutor General's Office emphasizes, these actions cover only the criminal dimension of the subject, while the civilian segment of the problem is omitted, and this approach narrows the field and the state's ability to recover assets stolen as a result of fraud. In this regard, the Prosecutor General's Office considers it imperative to develop, at the government or parliamentary level (with the support and in cooperation with other competent authorities), a strategic legal document (Strategy) regulating a complex range of activities that will lead to the use of tools and opportunities offered by criminal and civil procedural legislation, identifying and establishing the competent institutions that will be involved, indicators of progress, timing of submission of information and responsible for maintaining the database on the subject, analyzing, summarizing and communicating the results - to parliament, the president, society and, as the case may be, some international organizations. The Prosecutor General's Office noted that the Strategy is a medium-term and long-term document of state policy, which, in principle, determines the government's policy in a specific area of state policy, in which it is necessary to make decisions on a wide range of issues. The strategy is being developed with the aim of formulating new state policy in this area, as well as where the current state policy needs significant improvement. Policy documents are approved by a government decree. If the implementation of this policy involves the participation of administrative bodies not subordinate to the government, the program documents are approved by the parliament. If the proposals for dividing the document into two parts are approved: criminal and civil, the prosecutor's office assumes responsibility for coordinating and constructively facilitating activities within the framework of legal powers at all stages of the return of criminal assets in accordance with Art. of the Criminal Procedure Code: prosecution of property obtained by criminal means and collection of evidence; the establishment of a ban on the disposal of criminally obtained property; confiscation of criminally obtained property and compensation for damage; return of property obtained by criminal means. As noted, these actions, in fact, are already provided for in the joint order approving the Mechanism for the return of funds stolen from the banking system, which will be supplemented and updated as necessary. The prosecutor's office noted that this process should take into account the need to raise awareness of the judicial system on this issue, which should speed up the consideration of cases related to bank fraud. The ministry called for the creation of a working group to develop the Strategy, noting that the prosecutor's office will appoint a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office and specialized prosecutors involved in the investigation of banking fraud, and will present the institution's vision regarding the criminal and civil components, and pending a decision, the institution will continue to submit progress reports based on the latest findings from prosecutions and criminal trials. As noted, on September 6, the prosecutor's office informed the President of Moldova, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice on the state of affairs in this regard and made specific proposals for the development of a new comprehensive strategic document. // 08.09.2021 — InfoMarket.
