Moldovan prosecutor general says more than 195 million lei used to finance Shor Party in last year

Chisinau, 26 May /MOLDPRES/ - More than 195 million lei coming from a criminal scheme set by more accomplices has been used for the financing of the work of the Shor Party in the last year, including for the  organization of protests, payment of headquarters and protesters. The acting prosecutor general, Ion Munteanu, who came to ask for stripping MP Marina Tauber off parliamentary immunity, today made statements to this effect in parliament’s plenum.      

Munteanu noted that, starting from 2021 till this month, the money had been coming through a well-established scheme from Russia. At in instruction by Ilan Shor, people were selected from companies affiliated with him and were paid with 50 euros to become messengers and bring 8,000 euros to Moldova each.   

According to the quoted source, about 78 million lei out of those over 195 million lei was spent for the payment of the salaries of the formation’s employees, leadership of the territorial organizations, mayors and local councilors. Another 86 million lei was allocated for the organization of concerts to back the party, organize protests, carry protesters, as were paying them. The Shor Party was spending between 1 and 16 million lei for each protest against the current governance.    

At the today’s plenary meeting, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu presented three applications received from the acting Prosecutor General, Ion Munteanu, which demanded the consent for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of the MP of the parliamentary faction of the Shor Party, Marina Tauber, in order to arrest her and sue her at law on a cause of deliberate acceptance of the financing of the political party and the electoral contender by an organized crime ring on the period 2021-2023, as well as the falsification of the reports on the financing of the electoral campaigns on the period of the local elections for the office of Balti city’s mayor, held in November 2021.   

According to the procedure, those three applications and materials unveiled by the acting prosecutor general were submitted to the juridical commission for appointments and immunities, which held a meeting and subsequently presented in parliament’s plenum the reports and the draft decisions on the consideration of the applications. Lawmaker Marina Tauber came to the meeting of the juridical commission for appointments and immunities, but was absent from the today’s parliament meeting.  

Those three decisions on the consent for stripping Marina Tauber off parliamentary immunity were adopted with 59 and, respectively, 60 votes of the MPs. The parliament’s decisions will be submitted to the acting prosecutor general in a three-day period.   

Under Moldova’s Constitution, an MP cannot be detained, arrested or searched, except for cases of glaring offence or sued at law without the consent of the parliament after his/her hearing.