Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc was sentenced to 19 years in prison for fraud in the case of the missing billions of dollars. At the same time, the court blocked his property for 60 million dollars.
Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc was sentenced on Wednesday to 19 years in prison for fraud in the case of the disappearance of one billion dollars from the Moldovan banking system. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the AFP agency and the Euronews portal.
- Vladimir Plahotniuc was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for fraud in Chisinau.
- The court ordered the seizure of approximately sixty million dollars from his accounts.
- The prosecution initially requested a twenty-five-year sentence for fraud and organized crime.
The Chisinau court also ordered the seizure of approximately $60 million from Plahotniuc’s bank accounts. The 60-year-old oligarch was not present in the courtroom during the sentencing. In the past, he described the process as politicized and plans to appeal the decision.
Punishment and charges
The prosecutor’s office requested a 25-year sentence for Plahotniuc – the highest possible sentence currently allowed by the criminal code. In addition to fraud, the indictment mentioned the establishment and management of a criminal organization or money laundering.
At the end of July, Plahotniuc was detained at the airport in Athens on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant. According to the Moldovan authorities, the former head of the Democratic Party of Moldova and parliamentarian tried to fly to Dubai.
Escape and investigation
Before entering politics, Plahotniuc worked in the field of trade and finance. He fled Moldova in 2019 – just before the start of several investigations, including the disappearance of approximately one billion dollars from three banks. The case is known in Moldova as the theft of the century – one billion dollars is roughly 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
After escaping from Moldova, Plahotniuc lived in seclusion in the United States, where he applied for political asylum. The application was rejected and in January 2020 his American visa was also revoked. The US Secretary of State at the time, Mike Pompeo, declared that Plahotniuc’s “corrupt actions undermine the rule of law and seriously threaten the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova.”
EU and US sanctions
In 2024, the European Union imposed sanctions on Plahotniuc, accusing him of trying to destabilize Moldova before the presidential elections held in September 2024. American and British authorities also imposed sanctions on Plahotniuc.
