Society

PROMINENT MOLDOVAN BUSINESSMAN ILAN SHOR SENTENCED TO 7.5 YEARS IN JAIL, BUT VERDICT IS NOT YET IN FORCE

22 june, 2017

Prominent Moldovan man of business and the Mayor of Orhei town Ilan Shor has been sentenced to 7.5 years to be served in a usual-regime jail, as per the judgment made on Wednesday by the Court of Chisinau, which pleaded Shor guilty of his involvement in the embezzlement of approximately US$400 million equivalent from three Moldovan banks.

The verdict will come into force only after a final judicial judgment, i.e. after the decision of a higher judiciary instance – the Chisinau Appeals Court. The statement of verdict motivation will be made only on July 17, after which the sides concerned will be eligible to challenge the lower court’s judgment with the CAC.

The first-instance court ruled that until the Chisinau Appeals Court [second-instance] declares its official decision Ilan Shor shall be under the judicial review. This means that he may not leave the territory of Moldova, change his permanent place of residence without a prior informing of the judicial instance, and he must show up in the court on a first demand.

Prosecutor Andrei Baiesu, who was demanding 19 years for Shor, expressed his resolute disagreement with the verdict declared by the first-instance court, and stated he would challenge it.

“The court was provided with enough evidence of Ilan Shor’s guilt. Besides huge embezzlement of bank money, we proved that he went in for extortions and other criminal offences. I shall be demanding a stricter verdict”, stated the prosecutor.

Shor’s lawyers are also going to challenge the verdict and to prove that their client is innocent.

“We regard the verdict as unfounded. One should not forget that Mr. Shor gave himself up. He came to police and was the first one to name the sum of embezzled money. That was yet before the Kroll Company’s report. He was the only one who surrendered to police. He disclosed crime schemes, named money recipients by means of bank credits and other methods. Shor perfectly realizes the gravity of the situation he is in. He was counting on being treated according to a universal norm of treating people who surrender to police. However, this international rule appeared to be not working in Moldova. Moreover, his knowledge and the evidence he gave against other offenders became elements of the criminal lawsuit started against himself”, stated lawyer Denis Ulanov.

The lawyer stressed that that certainly nobody was accusing Shor of stealing the billion US dollars on everyone’s lips lately. No, the prosecution tackled a sum substantially smaller than that. Moreover, Shor was accused not of stealing money as such but of issuing risky credits totaling 5.2 billion lei (about US$400 million equivalent). But in the court, the Prosecution was able to present documentary evidence of credits total worth a twice smaller sum.

“As you all can see, the verdict is undoubtedly unfair, and we will undoubtedly challenge it. We do hope that the higher-instance court will take into consideration the evidence which we supplied from the very beginning to the first-instance court”, said Denis Ulanov.

Lawyer Iulian Balan said that the defense will be preparing two claims in parallel – to the Chisinau Appeals Court and to the European Court of Human Rights.

“This is a severe verdict not only for Ilan Shor but also to the attention of those to whom it may occur to give themselves up to police in the future.

Infotag’s dossier: Ilan Shor was detained on June 22, 2016 by National Anti-Corruption Center (NACC) officers for 72 hours on charges of “particularly gross banking machinations”. And on June 24, the Sectorul Buiucani Court of Chisinau sentenced him to a 30-day arrest on the demand of prosecutors. From August 5, 2016 to the present moment he was under a house arrest.

Ilan Shor, 30, is the head and owner of the Dufremol [duty-free Moldova] company having a network of specialized shops across the republic. He owns also a number of other companies inherited from his father who passed away a few years ago. Ilan Shor’s name is associated with the disputable concession of the Chisinau International Airport in 2014, as well as with the BEM [savings bank], Banca Sociala and Unibank that were placed under special administration by the National Bank of Moldova at the end of 2014.

In 2014, nearly a billion euros was withdrawn from the three banks over to foreign countries. In 2015, a criminal litigation was started against Ilan Shor and he was placed under house arrest. In June 2015, being still under the house arrest, he got registered as a candidate for the Mayor of Orhei. He was then released to let him take part in the election campaign, which he won impressively straight in the first round (62%). Since then, the Prosecution service has not used any measures of restraint against him.

On October 13, 2015 Ilan Shor showed up at the NACC and presented to its officers a 10-page history of corruption actions by former Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat. Shor stated to them that in exchange for various services, protection and most favored treatment, Premier Filat had received from him nearly US$250 million over the period of 2010 to October 12, 2015. The above-mentioned history contained the description of the most significant episodes in their relationship. Already 2 days after that, on October 15, MP Vlad Filat was deprived of his parliamentary immunity and arrested – just in the Parliament’s session room full of deputies and the media. Eventually, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison.

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