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Report
Author: Iurie Chirinciuc, Member of
the Parliament of the Republic of
Moldova
About the situation at Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank.
Chronological reconstitution of the events and exposure of the hidden
interests and the backstage actors.
Iurie Chirinciuc
0 of the BEM Investigation Committee
Member
23.03.2015
Table of contents:
After the 3rd emission of the BEM, the joint venture M-Credit had 23,33 % of the
BEM shares, Transworld-Invest company with foreign capital - 28,33% and the insurance
company Compasinter - 8,03%, all the 3 of them being controlled by NGG company.
As a result of the illegal emission, the State totally loses the control on the Banca de
Economii, the President of the Council of the Bank becomes Mr. Grigore Cunir, who had
before the function of President of the Supreme Economical Council of the President Petru
Lucinschi (The president of Moldova who have organized political coverage for the businesses
of Miron Shor. During the governance of Petru Lucinschi, Miron or was making money laundry
with fabulous sums, by using Duty Free type shops.). The vice-presidents of the BEM Board
were named Vadim Popov and Serghei Golic, citizens of the Russian Federation.
We want to stress out that Mr. Grigore Cunir was a key element in the robbery of the
State and in BEM case from 1994, but he didnt get any punishment.
In BEM and Petrolbank cases An Investigation Committee was initiated (dj vu). This
Investigation committee has mentioned that the next officials are guilty of the BEM situation and
many other illegalities committed within the process of the construction and operation of the
mentioned financial institution:
- Andrei Sangheli, ex-prime-Minister of the Republic of Moldova;
- Leonid Talmaci, the governor of the National Bank of Moldova;
- Dumitru Ursu, vice-governor of the National Bank of Moldova;
- Ion Prodan, vice-governor of the National Bank of Moldova;
- Constantin Bulgac, ex-president of the Banca de Economii;
- Nicolae Surdu, ex vice-president of the Banca de Economii;
- Ceslav Ciobanu, ex Minister of Privatization and State Property Administration, today
Ambasador of the Republic of Moldova in USA;
- Valeriu Chian, ex Minister of Finance;
- Andrei Cucu, today deputy Premier, ex-prime-deputy Minister of the Privatization and State
Property Administration;
- Iurie Badar, ex Minister of Privatization and State Property Administration, today adviser to
The modification of the rules of opening and keeping accounts of non-resident entities
(modification that would facilitate money laundry through the banking system of
Moldova);
The modification of the law on money laundry (the movement of money through the
accounts of non-residential should not be a matter of control for our control bodies, they
have to be controlled only on request of the control bodies from the owner of the
accounts origin country and even in this case, only in case of a limited number of
arguments);
The liberalization of the requests for creation of the reserves for the accounts of non-
residents;
The approval of the special bank activity licenses for the Institutions that would serve
only the accounts of non-residents. The conditions for issuance the licenses have to be
simplified and without many claims about the amount of the capital.
All these modifications proposed by Mr. O. Reidman are facilitating the money laundry
through Moldovan banking system, transforming the system into a regional laundry.
After the positive answer of the President V. Voronin, Mr. Reidman proposes the list of
the members of the working group for the problem of the financial system from Republic of
Moldova. (the fact that it was difficult to make money laundry in the country before 2005 was
an issue for some politicians). Thereby, based on Annex 4, we can see the members of the group:
Tarlev V.; Lupu M.; Lazri V.; Bondarciuc N.; Talmaci L.; Pop M.; Reidman O.; +Z. Greciani.
The members of this Working Group are the implementers and executors of the dirty plan of Mr.
Reidman.
This working group generated in 2006-2008 massive changes to the financial-banking
law, but also changes in the internal regulations of the NBM about the bank sector supervision,
about the security norms on tracking suspicious cash flows, also the Law about the National
Bank of Moldova and the Law on Financial Institutions. And by elimination of the Income tax
by the Minister of Economy up then - Mr. I. Dodon, the commercial banks escaped the only
tax they were paying. Thereby, canceling the income tax for legal entities lead to non-reporting
about suspicious transactions with migration of financial means of suspicious origin the
best way to lose track of the money laundry transactions.
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Another modification made by the working group Reidman was the elimination in 2008
from the article no. 251 of the Penal Code of the word pledged. (article 251, old version: The
assimilation, alienation in cases not allowed by law, and concealment of the pledged goods,
leased goods, seized or confiscated goods, or their usage in other purposes, done by a person
that was in charge of those goods, by law, is subject to a fine from 1.000 to 1.500 conventional
unities or prison up to 3 years, in both cases with (or without) the right to have some functions
or any activity during the 3 years, and the legal entity is subject to a fine between 1.000 to 3.000
conventional unities without the right to have any activity). So, through entering into force of
this modification, those who assimilate, alienate or hide the pledged goods are not anymore
under penal responsibility for their actions. The spirit of this law was immensely modified. If
hiding a leased and unpaid good is still a violation of the Penal Code, then why hiding a
pledged good is not ?
Together with the Penal Code modifications, another important part in the list of the
modifications (against the interests of the State) was the repeal of the Law on State secret
no. 106-XIII from 17.05.94 and its replacement with the Law on State secret no. 245-XVI from
27.11.2008. Thereby, the Law on State secret from 17.05.1994 chap. III, article 6(3) says:
considering an information secret is about establishing the rational character of the securitization
of some concrete information in order to avoid the endangering of the security of Republic of
Moldova.
Based on this provision all the information about the situation of BEM, BS and Unibank,
NPL, and beneficiaries would not be possible to be made secret, because this securitization is not
preventing, but is threatening the security of the Republic of Moldova. In article 12 (1) letter d),
of the law on State secret, from 1994 is forbidding the securitization of acts of Law violation,
inactivity and illegal actions of the State bodies and of people with responsibility functions in
State, if the disclosure will not endanger the security of the Republic of Moldova. In the context
of the 1994 Law the information presented to the Investigation committee ....would not be made
secret.
Through abrogation of the Law on State secret in 1994 and its replacement with the Law
245-XVI from 27.11.2008, the spirit of the Law is dramatically modified. Thereby, based on
the Law from 2008, chap. 2, article 6 (3) the augments for considering an information Sate
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secret are about establishing the rational character of the securitization of some concrete
information, of the eventual economical and other consequences of these actions, taking into
account the balance between the main State , society and citizen interests.
Next line (4), is also a non-sense formulation and it goes like this: the opportunity of the
attribution of information to State secret is about establishing some restrictions about the
access and spreading of those information be it while receiving/creating the info, or in
advance.
In the Law from 2008, in general the notion State security is missing, and the
securitization is not done not for avoiding the endangering of the State security, but for insuring
the balance between the interests of the State and the citizen.
Only now we understand the reason of this Law covering the corruption activities and
endangering the State security. Only now we can understand fully the reasons of replacement of
the Law from 1994 with the Law from 2008.
This and other modifications of legal documents lead as a consequence to the situation
when economical operators affiliated with political people have access to some credits at BEM,
which only in 2011 are being classified as bed loans. (Annex 5).
NPL and the free transit of cash flow of suspicious origin is becoming an international
worry. Thereby, in 2012 CCCEC (today NAC National Anticorruption Center) receives a
request (Annex 6), from Hermitage Capital Management LTD, company where the lawyer
Magniki used to work the person who have discovered many fiscal frauds in the Russian
Federation, about the investigation of the cases when Banks registered in Moldova were
implicated into cases about money laundry at regional and international levels.
In December 2012, the director of NAC have confirmed the initiation of prosecution and
also of facts exposed into the request letter, but he confirmed to be skeptical about solving the
Magniki case in Moldova (Annex no. 7). From Chetrarus words (annex 7), without the
intervention of the National Bank of Moldova, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of
Moldova and other institutions, the implication of Moldova in this big case would of been
impossible.
At 06.02.2014, on www.anticorupie.md, having the main source on: www.deschide.md,
there is an investigation information about the connection between the case Magniki and the
companies of Ilan Shor (especially insurance company Moldclassica), which, by chance or not,
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are registered on the same address with the company Introstyle Solutions LTD which holds
tiri Media TV (Publika TV station), but also some companies like: Nomirex Trading
Limited and Meridian Companies House LTD, implicated into money laundry between Russian
Federation and Moldova. (Annex 8).
As a result of various schemes of money laundry and NPL given by BEM, the institution
reaches critical cash insufficiency. Thereby, at 22 February 2013, through Parliamentary
Decision no 16, an Investigation Committee is created to examine the administration process of
the State shares in Banca de Economii LTD and the situation from financial-banking sector of
the Republic of Moldova. The president of the Committee is named Oleg Reidman, the person
who, in August 2012 was against the right of the State to hold 56% of BEM shares.
At 21 June 2013, there were discussions in the Parliament, within a closed meeting, about
the pseudo-report of the Committee, which was illegally published on the web page of the
Parliament and in mass-media on 26 June 2013. Without mentioning the very bad quality of the
report, one can see that the up-mentioned report doesnt have any annexes, any signatures of
the members of the Investigation Committee, any registration number (these were the
reasons why we formulated many requests in order to find an authentic report).
We want to remind, that after the audition of this Report, the Parliament have adopted
the Decision no. 152 from 21.06.2013 (Annex 9). In this decision, in Article 4 it is mentioned
that: the Report of the Investigation Committee is being send to the General Prosecutors office
and the National Anticorruption Center, and they will, after further examination, report in
plenary. It is important to mention that until today this Article has not been executed not by
Prosecutors office, neither by the NAC (annex 10, the answer of the NAC on the request of
Member of Parliament - Chirinciuc and annex 17, the answer of General Prosecutors office on
the request of Member of Parliament Chirinciuc).
Immediately after the publishing of the Reidman Committee Report in mass media, at
26.06.2013, the next day - 27.06.2013 the minority shareholders of BEM present the offer for
the bank recapitalization through the elimination of the State.
On 11.07.2013 there is a meeting of the Commission for developing commercial and
investment contests for privatization of public property, by the minutes (no. 34) of which comes
the decision:
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1. To accept the additional closed emission of shares without the participation of the State,
in sum of 80249700 lei, in the following conditions:
Granting by the minority shareholders of a loan of 600.000.000 lei;
Redemption by the minority shareholders of the NPL, together with the pledged goods
in total sum of 300.000.000 lei.
2. To make the task of the Ministry of Finance and the Agency of Public Property to sign an
agreement about granting the execution of the mentioned engagements under penalty of
nullity, with a strict supervision on respecting all the conditions.
We also want to remind that the meeting and the minutes of the Commission for developing
commercial and investment contests for privatization of public property were not legal because
BEM was not in the list of public property proposed for privatization.
At 12 July 2013, Friday late night, the Parliament adopts a list of modifications to the
Law 121-XVI regarding the administration and denationalization of public property;
modifications that were meant to give legal framework to all the illegalities towards the majority
of the shares belonging to the State. These modifications enter into force the 24 of August
2013 (important!).
Also at 12 July 2013, the Extraordinary General Meeting of BEM decides that the State
stys only with 2 members in the Board instead of 5, despite the fact that it had 56,1% from the
total of shares.
At 15 July 2013, Monday: the National Bank of Moldova confirms the new component of
the BEM Administration Board.
The same day, 15 July 2013, the Agency for Public property, near the Ministry of
Economy is expressing its approval about the increase of capital of BEM through additional
closed emission. The decision taken by the Agency can be considered illegal because Law 121
XVI was not yet into force, and Government Decision 414 approved on 21 June 2013 and
applied in BEM case could not be used without the modification provisions to Law 121.
Then on 2nd August 2013, it is decided the increase of capital of BEM through emission
of shares with nominal value of 5 lei per share (not even the inherent value of 35 lei), without
the State participation, meaning that the State loses with the vote of the State the majority of the
shares in favor of a minority group of shareholders.
from 16.03.2015. Through this document I am informed that the activity of the Investigation
Committee for examining the procedure of administration of the State shares at BEM and of the
financial-banking situation of the Republic of Moldova (2013) was classified and access to the
resulting documents is granted only to the Investigation Committee members. (Annex 15)
This answer contradicts the one given by the person responsible of the secrecy regime in
the Parliament, who informed us that the documents and the report of the Investigation
Commission were not classified.
Meanwhile, I sent a request to the General Directorate of Parliamentary Documentation,
for them to provide us with a copy of the materials distributed to the Deputies meeting on
21.06.2013, during which meeting the Report of the Investigation Committee was presented and
Decision no 152 was taken. I didnt receive any document, and the head of the Directorate, Mr.
Ganaciuc, informed us that during the plenary meeting of 21.06.2013 it was decided that the
Decision no 272 from 18.06.2013 and the Report of the Investigation Commission should be
declassified and published on the website of the Parliament, thus all materials can be found
online. (Annex 16).
Therefore, Mr. Ganaciuc confirms that the Report presented to the deputies is identical
with the one on the Parliaments website. We want to remind you that the Report found on the
Parliaments website is 17 pages long, doesnt have a signature, a registration number, a stamp or
an annex and is identical with the one released in the press on 26.06.2013.
Given these circumstances and given the lack of materials and of the Investigation
Commissions Report in the archives of the Parliament, we can conclude that a report signed by
all members of the Commission or at least by the president never existed, and the reference
materials of this Commission, as well as the reports of the institutions involved and the minutes
of the Commission meetings are gone and nowhere to be found.
Under these obscure circumstances, the question is how is it possible, in an institution
like the Parliament of Moldova, for the materials of a Commission that worked for 4 months to
investigate the situation at BEM in 2013, to just disappear?
These circumstances show the direct interest of the members of the Commission to
conceal the true situation of the BEM and the financial market situation in Moldova as a whole.
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For these reasons, we believe that members of the 2013 Investigation Commission,
Mocanu and Reidman, do not have the moral right to be part of the Investigation Committee
for examining the procedure of administration of the State shares at BEM and the measures
undertaken for the stabilization of the exchange rate for the Moldovan leu...
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BEM Committee 2015. BEM, BS and Unibank situation between the years
2014-2015 and what caused the crisis on the financial currency market in
2013.
Although the Supreme Court of Justice has decided at 27 of November 2014 the taking over by
the State of the 56% of the shares of BEM, anyway, these modifications were not operated into
the State Real Estate Register. Although BEM was completely robbed, through the decision of the
Court, the State has to give back the sum of 80,2 million lei to the Russian investor
Vneshkombank..
In order to identify the causes of the crisis from the financial-currency sector in the
Republic of Moldova from January - February 2015, we have studied a large number of
documents. The most relevant are being presented here, together with the rigor remarks and
conclusions.
At 16 April 2014, the president of the country - N. Timofti is being informed about the
conclusions of foreign experts (experts of the IMF) about the problems form the financial14
banking system of Republic of Moldova. Thereby, the President was informed about the
observations of the experts:
Moldovan banks are exposed to major risks because of the violation of crediting rules
established by the National Bank of Moldova about big exposure of the banks;
The measures against money laundry are totally missing within the banking system and
during one year through Moldovan banks suspicious operations to off-shore zones have
been carried out with a total amount of 1000 billion lei). This sum came out of the AntiCorruption Center service of money laundry, but was not confirmed by the National Bank
At 3 December 2014, The Premier is informed about the fact that BEM doesnt have liquidity
for its normal activity because about 6 billion lei were converted into foreign currency and were
placed into the Russian Federations banks.
At 13 of January 2015, Iurie Leanc is informed about the stages of the scheme about
robbing the 3 banks. Thereby, first the money from the 3 banks are placed into the financial
institutions of Russian Federation, then the transfer of all the placements from Russian
Federation to Social Bank (Banca Sociala) is performed, the total amount only from BEM being
10,8 billion. Later, on 25-26 November 2014, the interim president N. Rahuba grants credits in
sum of 13,6 billion lei to affiliated companies of Ilan Shor: Danmira SRL, Davena- Com SRL,
Voximar-Com SRL, Contrade and Caritas Group. The National Bank of Moldova (BNM) did not
intervene in order to stop the inter-banking placements from 25-26 of November offering the
following reason for that: beginning with 25.11.2014 Banca Social had stopped the daily
reporting. In those conditions, the BNM had an excuse, but no excuse for the Money laundry
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prevention and fighting Service within the National Anticorruption Center, which had to block
the currency transfers.
Immediately after granting the credits, the money of the mentioned companies went to the
off-shore Fortuna United LP (from Great Britain). Then, the total credited amount was
transferred to off-shore jurisdictions. And in order to remove all traces, the file with financialbanking documents is being destroyed ( files about crediting, credit agreements and other papers
referring to the placements to Russian Federation) by setting fire to the car (transporting the
documents) belonging to the company Klassica Force ( Ilan Shor company, the link-ul).
After these schemes, the possible prejudice for BEM, Banca Social and Unibank goes up to
17.6 billion lei.
At 28.11.2014 the Board of the national Bank of Moldova has decided to name a special
administrator of the bank Mr. Ion Ropot. We have to mention here that Mr. Ion Ropot was
suggested by the Liberal Democrat Party of Moldova in the position of deputy-governor of the
National bank, but he became the chief of the Special Administration department at the national
Bank. He is the son of Mr. Nicolae Ropot chief of the department of LPA in the Council of
Sangerei Raion, also member of LDPM.
It is being said that Mr. Ion Ropot was the person who (while being special administrator of
the Investprivatbank) insured the selling of the headquarters of Investprivatbank to a business
partner from Iasi (Romania) of Mr. Vlad Filat.
At 17 February 2015, the President of the Parliament - Adrian Candu is informed about the
real causes of the huge depreciation of the national currency. Thereby, as main causes the
following arguments are brought:
1. Suspicious transfers in 2014 from the Russian Federation in sum of more than 100 billion
Russian rubles to Commercial Bank Moldinconbank, which were later converted into
USD and euro and then transferred to off-shore companies and then back to Russia;
2. Suspicious credits granted to Ilan Shor companies in total sum of 13,6 billion lei; money
that were converted into foreign currency and transferred later to off-shore companies.
3. The migration of the deposits from Moldovan lei intro foreign currency and the
speculations of the currency exchange points that were refusing to sell liquidity (even if
they had the money available).
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The sum of all the big exposures of the 3 banks during October - November 2014 is
exceeding 5 times the Total Regulatory Capital. The National Banks Regulation about big
exposures (approved in 09.12.2013) says that: exposure means any asset or/and any extra
balance element reflected into the balance or/and outside the balance which can be subject of a
risky credit (the risk that the debtor or/and the contracting part would not be able to fulfill
the obligations towards the bank).
The Board of the national Bank of Moldova approves on 27 of November 2014 the
decision to grant an emergency credit to BEM (5,273 billion), Banca Social (2,8 billion) and
Unibank (1,353 billion). This decision was taken based on the minutes no 2/2014 from 7
November of the National Committee for Financial Stability and based on the Secret
Government Decision from 13 November 2014.
So, the urgent credit was granted by the State and the obligations emitted by the Ministry
of Finance are due on 27 of March 2015.
Referring to this, we can suppose that on the due date (27 of March 2015) the sum of
9434 million becomes a public debt with an interest rate of 13% annually.
If to speak about solutions for the 3 banks, there are 2 options: recapitalization or
liquidation. Thereby for:
BEM
1. Recapitalization can be done with a total sum of 12,5 billion lei
2. Liquidation cost - 10.5 billion lei
For Banca Sociala
1. Recapitalization can be done with a total sum of 18 billion lei
2. Liquidation cost - 3 billion lei
For Unibank
1. Recapitalization can be done with a total sum of 2,6 billion lei
2. Liquidation cost - 2,4 billion lei
From the above mentioned we can suppose that for the recapitalization of the 3 banks, we
would need approximately 33,1 billion lei, and the liquidation of the 3 banks would cost us 15,9
billion lei.
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risks in the financial and banking sectors of the country, but they did not fulfill their
obligations in order to prevent the robbing of the banks;
10. The general view on the events from November 2014 related to BEM situation is the
following:
7.11.2014 the secret meeting of the National Committee for Financial Stability
where it is decided the allocation of a credit granted by the State for BEM, BS and
Unibank;
13.11.2014 Leanc Government adopts Government Decision no.938-11 ss
(based on the Law about State secret this Decision was declared as secret for a
period of 25 years) through which the Ministry of Finance grants with obligations
This chronology makes us conclude how well were directed all the actions that happened at
this bank. We see the implication of important State people in this case as a danger for the
National Security.
11. At 25-26 November the situation of BEM, BS and Unibank was already critical (at 7
November the National Committee for Financial Stability is confirming this fact and on
13 November the Government decides to grand an emergency credit), despite this, none
of the States Institution intervene for blocking the 13,6 billion lei credit;
12. Later, the massive purchase of currency by the credited companies was not blocked and
also the transfers to off-shores were done with no impediments;
13. The credited companies are related or in possession of Ilan Shor. And also these
companies are the ones places huge requests of foreign currency in the period October
2014 February 2015. Nevertheless the transactions were not stopped;
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14. The companies Provolirom LTD, Caritas Group LTD and Dracard LTD are present in the
schemes from November 2014 and in the schemes presented by Mr. V. Ioni within the
Meeting from 15 September 2014, registered under number CEB 472 (annex 14). Based
on the date provided by Mr. V. Ioni, the up-mentioned companies were credited in June,
July 2014, and later, through the off-shores the money reached in the account of the
company Caravita Co LTD, belonging to the nephew of Vlad Filat. Thus we can
suspect that also in the case of the credits from November 2014, together with Ilan Shor,
Vlad Filat is also implicated;
15. The crediting files and agreements, but also other documents about money movement to
Russian Federation all was destroyed in the fire car accident (belonging to Klassica
Force insurance company of Ilan Shor);
16. The prejudice of all these schemes can be much higher than the sum of 17,6 billion lei,
indicated in the information presented by the Security Service office. We can say that the
total prejudice would be 33,1 billion lei (sum needed for the recapitalization of the 3
banks);
17. In non-performing crediting schemes also other Moldovan banks can be implicated; their
credits could not be correctly classified taking into account their risk degree;
18. The real cause of the national currency depreciation between January and February 2015
is the high and sudden number of requests for foreign currency conditioned by the
crediting granted in November 2014 in total sum of 13,6 billion lei, but also by money
laundry of the 100 billion rubles through Moldinconbank, during the year 2014. One
more reason is the massive conversion of lei deposits in foreign currency deposits;
19. The high vulnerability of the banking system in the Republic of Moldova is conditioned
also by the direct and indirect possession of the Russian Federation of 80% of the assets
of the local banks. However, this argument did not prevent the State from ceding in
autumn 2013 25% from BEMs shares to Russian bank Vneeconombank;
20. There is yet not clear why the National Bank of Moldova admitted the creation of panic
on the currency market and why the 50 million USD intervention placed on the market
coincided with the day when the new Gaburici Government was voted;
21. Because of the fact that the problems from the banking system of our Republic are still
not solved, we can witness some repeated currency shocks, maybe even bigger than in
January February 2015;
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22. Making the information about the Committees activity and the BEM situation secret has
the purpose to cover-up the illegalities committed. Also this was the reason to cancel in
2008 the Law on State secret from 1994;
23. There is a necessity to investigate the implication also of NefteGazGroup, the company
that damaged the State budget in the `90 and pretends in 2012, based on a Decision
signed by the Government in 1994, the rights for a field of 25ha from the Municipality of
Chisinau in Grenoble Street;
24. We can conclude that the robbing of BEM was the main reason for taking out from
Governance the Liberal Party, determining the creation of a coalition with the Communist
Party.
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