Former Finance Minister to be heard by investigation commission

Chisinau, 14 August /MOLDPRES/- Former Finance Minister Anatol Arapu and former head of Victoriabank Natalia Politova-Cangaș will be heard on 21 August by the Commission of Inquiry on elucidating the circumstances of the devaluation of the banking system. Commission’s head Alexandru Slusari made the statement.

After hearing the two, the committee members will decide whether they will hear the former prime minister Vlad Filat.

This week, the Commission of Inquiry found that after the Moldovan government decided to grant state guarantees for emergency loans granted by the National Bank of Moldova amounting to 9.5 billion lei, the three banks worked without having a special state administration and stole huge amounts of money from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova.

"The management of the government and the National Bank acted negligently during that period, by failing to ensure immediately control over BEM, Unibank and the Social Bank," Slusari said.

He noted that the commission asked the law enforcement bodies to initiate the criminal investigation on behalf of Iurie Leancă, Dorin Drăguțan, Adrian Candu and Anatol Arapu.

The state guarantees issued in the case of the three banks were subsequently transformed into the state debt.