Former leader of Moldovan Democratic Party to be investigated for fake documents in new file

Vladimir Plahotniuc, former leader of the Moldovan Democratic Party (PDM), will be investigated for document forgery in a new criminal file. Prosecutor Alexandru Cernei has made statements to this effect during a court hearing in which the prosecutor requested an extension of Plahotniuc’s pre-trial detention. Plahotniuc is currently held in Penitentiary No. 13. The former PDM leader did not attend the hearing.

The three defense witnesses who were to be heard also failed to come to the hearing. They are former Minister of Finance Anatol Arapu, who is in Romania, the former president of Banca de Economii (Savings Bank), Ivan Crivceanschi, and former MP Denis Ulanov, all of whom invoked health reasons.

The prosecutor specified that the file had been opened based on documents seized by Greek investigators from the house that Plahotniuc rented in Athens, Greece. The documents show that Plahotniuc allegedly used multiple identities, with a total of 18 fake documents discovered.

Presently, Plahotniuc is also under investigation in a segment of the Bank Fraud file. His lawyer, Lucian Rogac, criticized the request to extend the pre-trial detention, noting that the grounds invoked by the prosecutors are about four months old and are based on alleged documents seized by foreign authorities. The defense lawyer said that he had requested these arguments be dismissed, as the prosecutor did not substantiate the request adequately.

The lawyer also underlined that there were real difficulties in summoning witnesses, as the defense does not have access to the population registry database, which prevents the identification of addresses and contact details, including phone numbers of the witnesses who are to be heard in the file.

Vladimir Plahotniuc has been in pre-trial detention since 25 September 2025, after being extradited from Greece, at which point four arrest warrants issued in his name were enforced. He is currently held in Penitentiary No. 13 in Chisinau and is under investigation in four high-profile criminal files related, among other things, to the creation and leadership of a criminal organization, fraud, money laundering and bank fraud.