Eight people, among whom one former PM, to get on trial in file on concession of Chisinau Airport

Chisinau, 2 May /MOLDPRES/ - Eight persons, among whom a former prime minister and former economics minister, will get on trial in the file on the concession of the Chisinau International Airport. Today, the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), Veronica Dragalin, informed that the file had reached judges’ table and the damage caused to the state on this case is of more than 392 million lei (about 20 million euros).       

According to Dragalin, those eight people run the risk of being sentenced to 4-8 years of imprisonment, with the deprivation of right to hold certain offices for a period of up to 15 years. Twenty witnesses were heard in this file and more documents were considered, among which turnovers from banks of Moldova and from abroad, extracts from email boxes, financial expertises and documents following rogatory commissions.    

Those eight people, who were the former PM, Iurie Leanca, the former economic minister, Valeriu Lazar, the former head of the Public Property Agency, Tudor Copaci and the former director of the Airport, Petru Jardan, would have committed irregularities at the organization of the tender for the Airport’s concession and would have allowed the change of the percentage which was to go to the state from the concession, decreasing it from 8 to 1 per cent, thus causing damages to the state worth at least 392 million lei. Thus, the tender would have been mimed and a company affiliated to Ilan Shor was illegally declared winner. Also, the former PM would have benefited from sums of money and flights by private planes from Ilan Shor and Petru Jardan would have simultaneously worked as director of the Chisinau Airport and manager of the Avia Invest firm.          

The PA head noted that, to cover the damage inflicted in this case, anticorruption prosecutors, along with the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency, had managed to levy distraint on assets worth 189 million lei in this file, including on the share capital and assets belonging to the Avia Invest company and assets which belong to the defendants.     

Photo: Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office