PROVIDING OF CITIZENSHIP IN EXCHANGE FOR INVESTMENTS WILL TRANSFORM MOLDOVA INTO MONEY-LAUNDERING MACHINE – PAS

The initiative on providing Moldovan citizenship in exchange for investments will transform Moldova into a “machine for money laundering” maintains the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS).

Party member Dan Perciun said at the press conference on Thursday that not only the civil society is concerned about such an easy way for people with doubtful reputation to get Moldovan citizenship, but the National Anti-Corruption Center (NACC) also is.

“The NACC conclusions are the following: the law represents a threat to the country’s economy – it will allow legalizing dirty money in the republic, which may later be used for financing terrorism. The NACC directly states that the law endangers the national security”, Perciun said.

According to him, the law was created in interests of foreign business people with doubtful reputation.

“These advantages will be used not by investors from developed European countries, but from Russia, Turkmenistan, countries of Africa, Asia, South America. Another interested group will be made of people, involved in the theft of the century, who will need to withdraw from shadow the billion, stolen from Moldovan banks. The checking for integrity will be conducted by state structures, which lack trust”, Perciun said.

The PAS general secretary Igor Grosu said that the initiative was adopted by the Parliament on the same day with the notorious law on capital liberalization, which raised arguments in the society and was neither approved by the NACC.

“Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu is author of both laws, which raises suspicions”, he said.

Lawyer Sergiu Litvinenco said that there are equivalent examples of getting citizenship in other countries, for example in Serbia.

“But there, one has to pay to the state 7.5 thousand euros for being checked for integrity, to present a business plan of activities to the Economy Ministry and ensure jobs for at least four Serbian citizens. There is nothing similar in the Moldovan law”, he said.

Infotag’s dossier: Amendments to the law on citizenship, which allows foreigners to get citizenship in exchange for investments, were adopted by the Parliament on December 16, 2016, but entered into force only on June 27, 2017. According to these, an investor has to invest at least 100 thousand euros in the Fund of Public Investments or 250 thousand euros during five years in one of strategic branches, identified by the Government. The law implies that not more than 5 thousand people can benefit from the law. In reality, the law will start working after the Government issues decision on each stage of functioning of the mechanism of getting citizenship.