​VLAD PLAHOTNIUC IS CHIEF BENEFICIARY OF MOLDOVA BANK THEFT – MIHAI GOFMAN

The chief beneficiary of the huge theft from three Moldovan banks is Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, and the coordinator of all actions related to “the robbery of the century” is Sergey Yaralov, stated Mihai Gofman, the former Deputy Chief of the Money Laundering Prevention Service of the National Anti-Corruption Center (NACC), at his news conference held at The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC on Monday.

Gofman said he had come to the United States to ask assistance and support in the investigation of the stealing of a billion euros from the three Moldovan banks – Banca de Economii a Moldovei (BEM, savings bank), Banca Sociala and Unibank.

“It is necessary to ensure a competent international assistance because Moldova has no forces enough for this. So far, nobody is in fact investigating this bank robbery in earnest, though I gave explanations to the Moldovan authorities concerning what had happened and how to act. What has been done to date are actually fragments of a general picture”, said Gofman.

He reiterated that the chief beneficiary of the huge bank theft is the First Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party of Moldova, business tycoon Vlad Plahotniuc, and the second important-most actor in the bank fraud is Vlad Filat, the former Prime Minister of Moldova. Gofman also confirmed that the organizer of the bank theft is businessman Sergey Yaralov, “but he was only a performer, and standing behind him were much mightier people”.

“Besides this first echelon in the chain, there was also a second echelon, and a third, and a fourth one. May be even the fifth echelon – of those who were in charge of coordination of the “theft of the century””, said the former NACC officer.

Mihai Gofman stated that he had come to the United States on his own initiative. According to him, his information aroused interest in the United States because there was international donors’ and American taxpayers’ money, too, in the stolen billion euros.

He refuted the Monday’s accusations made by the Moldovan Prosecutor General’s Office and by the NACC – that he is allegedly avoiding coming to them to give evidence. According to him, the influential Frontier Solution organization informed the Moldovan prosecutors that Gofman was in the United States on the invitation of the organization, and that he promised to return home in 10 days and to tell the prosecutors everything about the theft of the billion.

Asked why the Frontier Solution is defending his interests, Mihai Gofman evaded giving a straight answer and only said that his voyage “is directly related to the Republic of Moldova’s interests in the USA”.

“I have come here to say what is actually going on in Moldova. Nobody would hear me in Moldova all this time, so I want to tell everything here in America”, stated Gofman.

He described to the American audience his proposal that could permit to save Banca Sociala from death for merely 20 million lei, “but the Ministry of Finance said then that the Moldovan State had no such huge money”.

With the help of this money, Gofman was intending in 2013 to submit bids for purchasing BEM shares for 2,000-3,000 lei a piece and thus not to let private shareholders, led by oligarch Ilan Shor, to suppress the price from 50 lei down to 12-14 lei/piece. At that low price, by launching a private issue of shares to an amount of 80 million lei, in which enterprise the Moldovan State did not participate, the said private shareholders took away 23% shares from the State, having thus established their control over the BEM.

“We were looking at all that, watching them disemboweling the savings bank”, said Gofman with regret, adding that in 2013 nobody wished to hear him about a scheme being plotted, with which swindlers were going to draw out the National Bank’s hard-currency reserve to an amount of a billion euros.

According to him, subsequently all that was carried out in three stages: first – issue of knowingly irrevocable credits from the banks; second – ‘time credits’ issued by the National Bank to the three problematic banks to an amount of 14.2 billion lei; third – a governmental security for the National Bank to an amount of 13.5 billion lei, which sum will be repaid over 25 years at the Moldovan taxpayers’ expense.

The former Deputy Chief of the NACC Money Laundering Prevention Service stated once again that in early 2014, all documents on situation in the banking sector were presented to the country leadership – to the President, Chairman of Parliament, Prime Minister as well as to key relevant agencies – to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Commission for Financial Market, the Information and Security Service and other.

Touching on the US$23 billion, which were channeled via Moldovan banks over 4 years, Mihai Gofman stated that the country leadership was fully aware of all that.

“But nobody wished to introduce a tax on remittances to offshore zones, say 7% as I proposed. So, that money went into somebody’s pocket, and not into the State Budget. In January-September 2013, the remittances from Moldova to offshore zones amounted to 92 billion lei”, said Gofman.

Asked if it is true that the idea of siphoning off money from Moldovan banks belonged to businessman Veaceslav Platon and that the idea’s realization in practice was ensured by Vlad Plahotniuc, Mihai Gofman replied, “It is possible to say so”.

He confirmed also the information about the laundering of more than US$23 billion of the Russian origin via Moldovan commercial banks.

“Vlad Plahotniuc and Veaceslav Platon are those very Moldova citizens who have derived benefit from this deal – along with some influential people from Russia included into the known Magnitsky List of names”, said Gofman.

Touching on the concession of the Chisinau International Airport, Gofman said that, most probably, Ilan Shor currently owns only a very little parcel in the concession company, and that the Government’s decision concerning the airport’s concession was “a great blunder” because the company that had taken the Chisinau airport into concession is now close to bankruptcy.

Gofman recommended waiting for news from the British Foreign Office, which must shortly stand up with a statement about the British company of Fortuna United, which issued a power of attorney to 5 offshore firms involved in money siphoning off from banks.

“As far as I am informed, these firms have been at the stage of insolvency at the moment, so it is not quite clear whom the Chisinau airport really belongs now”, said Mihai Gofman.

At the end of the news conference, Mihai Gofman recommended TV7 program host Natalia Morari to protect herself from possible threats to her life. In his words, the reasons of the coming threats are the live interviews she conducts that disclose the details of the case of the stolen billion.

Infotag’s dossier: In her turn, Natalia Morari also said in her life program “Interpol” cast on Monday night that she is receiving warnings from her own source in a state agency, which is secretly following her for the same reason. But the journalist did not disclose the name of the agency or of her source.