Five Moldovans detained for money laundering, fiscal evasion

Chisinau, 2 February /MOLDPRES/ - Five leaders of a criminal ring have been detained for laundering of money worth 65 million lei and fiscal evasion of almost six million lei. The deputy chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office for the Combating of Organized Crime and Special Causes (PCCOCS), Vitalie Busuioc, made statements to this effect at a news conference today.     

According to the prosecutor, more farmers are involved in the scheme; the agriculturists, in order not to pay taxes to the state budget, called or were called by ring’s members to forge bookkeeping documents in the process of commercializing apples or other agricultural products.   

“According to the scheme, farmers were selling products to factories without compiling certain acts. Subsequently, interposed persons were found, who were indicated in forged bookkeeping acts as traders of fruits. To this end, more banking cards were created for the presumed traders and ring’s members. After that, the bookkeeping documents were forged, in order to legalize the origin of farming products. In continuation, plants’ representatives, based on the forged documents, were transferring the money to the cards of interposed persons, who were raising it from ATMs and were transmitting it to suspects and the latter were transmitting it to farmers through intermediaries,” Busuioc said.   

In exchange of these services, the interposed persons were receiving 0.5 percent of the money raised and the suspects – 9 per cent of all sum.”The suspects were acting in Chisinau through three banks. There are farmers who refused the suspects’ services, - a fact proved by a string of phone interceptions,” Vitalie Busuioc noted.   

The ring’s members were detained following more searches carried out at their homes and offices. Some of them recognized their guilt. The ring has been acting beginning with 2017 and tens of farmers are concerned in the file.  

The ring’s leadership is prosecuted in custody. If found guilty, the persons run the risk of being sentenced from 5 to 10 years of imprisoned for money laundering and up to six years for fiscal evasion.    

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor A. Raileanu)