Members of the Parliament of Moldova from the PAS faction ask for the resignation of Octavian Armasu from the post of President of the National Bank of Moldova
The chairman of the parliamentary commission on economics, budget and finance, Radu Marian, wrote about this on his social network page. “As a result of today’s hearings in the commission and at the plenary session of parliament on the investigation into the “theft of a billion”, which revealed serious problems in the activities of the management of the NBM, sabotage in the field of money return, employment and retention of people involved in bank fraud, as well as obstruction of the investigation, we ask for your resignation, Mr. Octavian Armasu,” wrote Radu Marian. He noted that today the first part of parliamentary hearings on the issue of returning money received as a result of bank fraud took place. Closed hearings were held in the commission with the prosecutor's office, ISS (Information and Security Service) and open hearings with the NBM and the Ministry of Finance. “I will mention several conclusions about the actions/inactions of the leadership of the NBM, represented by President Octavian Armasu, in three areas: sabotage during the return of money, hiring and maintaining in office people involved in bank fraud; obstruction of the investigation,” wrote Radu Marian. According to him, the leadership of the NBM has repeatedly ignored requests from the prosecutor’s office in the case of bank fraud. Citing difficulties of cooperation, limited access to information and registers, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office was forced to resort to tough measures in the form of searches and forced collection of evidence from the NBM and its employees. At the same time, according to documents presented by the prosecutor’s office, the management of the NBM refused to verify the information contained in the Kroll 2 report; refused to conduct an internal audit of NBM employees who were responsible for banking supervision during the period when bank fraud was carried out in three banks; the NBM transmitted fragmentary information or information that did not correspond to requests. Radu Marian noted that the leadership of the NBM did not take care to protect the institution from some NBM employees involved in protecting the interests of the beneficiaries of “banking fraud.” He also cited a number of cases, “which, in parallel with the passivity of the investigative authorities until 2019, led to a significant decrease in the chances of returning assets obtained through bank fraud.” “Now we are discussing in the faction what the next actions will be regarding the President of the NBM,” wrote Radu Marian, and later he wrote that PAS deputies are asking for the resignation of Octavian Armasu. According to the law on the National Bank of Moldova, the Chairman of the Supervisory Council - the President of the NBM is recalled at the proposal of the Chairman of Parliament by two-thirds of the votes of the elected deputies. The decision to recall a member of the Supervisory Board or a member of the Executive Committee may be appealed to the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 15 days from the date of its publication in the “Monitorul Oficial». // 21.12.2023 — InfoMarket
