CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — A court in Moldova sentenced a former opposition leader and one of the nation’s richest men on Wednesday to 19 years in a fraud case that saw a billion dollars stolen from several of the impoverished European country’s banks more than a decade ago.
The oligarch, Vladimir Plahotniuc, 60, was convicted by the Buiucani District Court in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, on charges ranging from creating and participating in a criminal organization to fraud and money laundering.
He was implicated in a $1 billion dollar bank theft from three Moldovan banks in 2014. The sum was the equivalent of about an eighth of Moldova’s annual GDP at the time and plunged the country into turmoil. Prosecutors alleged that he received $39 million and 3.5 million euros of the stolen funds through companies controlled by another Moldovan oligarch, Ilan Shor.
Alexandru Cernei, the case prosecutor, told reporters that the prosecution had asked for a maximum sentence of 25 years and that the state would seek $60 million in damages.
Plahotniuc, who did not attend Wednesday’s sentencing, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated.
His lawyer, Lucian Rogac, called the court’s decision “unlawful” and said they will appeal.
“We didn’t expect a different ruling, given that the entire process was marred by serious violations,” he said.
Plahotniuc fled to the United States from Moldova in June 2019 after failing to form a government with his Democratic Party. He was detained in Greece in July last year and extradited in September to Moldova, where he was placed under pre-trial detention.
“For years, Plahotniuc evaded justice while controlling the system itself,” Iulian Groza, executive director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms think tank, wrote on Facebook.
“That a reformed court, with integrity-vetted judges, has now convicted him of running a criminal organization, fraud, and money laundering is a milestone — and proof that judicial reform works,” Groza said. “The next test is the appeal.”
In 2020, the U.S. declared Plahotniuc persona non grata, meaning an unacceptable or unwelcome person, and his whereabouts were unknown for years.
The powerful businessman and politician was added to a U.S. State Department sanctions list in 2022 for alleged corruption. The charges included controlling the country’s law enforcement to target political and business rivals and meddling in Moldova’s elections.
He was added to a U.K. sanctions list in 2022 and barred from entering the country. His assets were frozen in the United Kingdom and its overseas territories.
Landlocked between war-torn Ukraine and European Union and NATO member Romania, Moldova was a Soviet republic until it proclaimed independence in 1991. In recent years it has taken a clear Westward path, turning the country into a geopolitical battleground between Russia and Europe.
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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.