Supreme Court of Justice delivered first verdict in Russian Laundromat cases

The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has resolved the first case from the group of cases known as Russian Laundromat, targeting a former judge from Căușeni Court.

According to the CSJ, the magistrate issued an order in May 2011 to collect 200 million USD from a Russian company in favor of a British firm. The document was executed via the banking system of the Republic of Moldova without being contested by the debtor.

Lower courts, the Chișinău Court and the Chișinău Court of Appeal found the judge guilty of knowingly issuing a verdict against the law, based on Article 307 of the Criminal Code. He contested the decisions.

In the verdict delivered on Friday, the CSJ rejected the defense's arguments and noted that the judicial order represented, at that time, an immaterial object of the crime specified under Article 307, even if it was not explicitly mentioned in the legal text. The court highlighted several grave irregularities committed by the judge, such as admitting uncertified document copies, not translating documents from unknown languages, the absence of a state tax, and the fact that the beneficiary firm had no legal claim to the amount.

The panel concluded that the magistrate played a key role in a complex scheme to fraudulently obtain the order. However, due to the expiration of the five-year statute of limitations, the CSJ decided to establish guilt but release the judge from criminal liability.

Several similar cases from the Russian Laundromat are pending in national courts. Judicial practice remains inconsistent: in some cases, judges have been acquitted, while in others they have been found guilty but released from punishment due to the statute of limitations.

The Russian Laundromat is the general name of a scheme through which, between 2010 and 2014, billions of dollars from the Russian Federation were laundered through court orders issued in the Republic of Moldova, using offshore companies and banking institutions. The scheme was investigated in multiple countries and drew international criticism regarding corruption and vulnerabilities within the Moldovan judicial and financial systems.