Prosecutor General's Office initiated criminal case on Moldovan National Lottery business

Chisinau, 22 October /MOLDPRES/- The General Prosecutor's Office initiated a criminal case on public-private partnership with the National Lottery of Moldova. Suspects in the case are decision makers from the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the Public Property Agency and some economic agents. Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo made the statement today.

Establishment of a public-private partnership in gambling would have been done in Moldova with many irregularities, and the state was harmed.

“The General Prosecutor's Office investigated, in a criminal trial, the trajectory of the actions that allowed the prejudice of the public budget as a result of the transmission, through various dubious schemes, to foreign companies, of the control in the field of gambling. The investigations revealed that certain decision-makers of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the Public Property Agency, other persons not yet identified, aiming to facilitate some economic agents to gain control in gambling, intentionally using the service situation, would have created prerequisites for taking over the business for the benefit of a small circle of people, through the National Lottery of Moldova, developing and promoting the necessary regulatory framework, as well as cheating activities at the departmental and interdepartmental level ", he said.

He noted that by Law No 291 of December 16, 2016 on the organization and conduct of gambling, the state monopoly in the field was set up, being empowered to organize and conduct the respective activity National Lottery of Moldova - economic agent with full state quota, and the activity of economic agents in gambling was stopped, with the invalid declaration of licenses. At the same time, by a government decision, changes were made in the list of works and services of national public interest, proposed to the public-private partnership, including in Annex No2 the services in the fields that represent state monopoly, managed by the National Lottery in Moldova.

"On 1 November 2018 - May 2019, funds worth 325.98 million lei were collected from the sale of lottery tickets of which 39.5 million lei went to the National Lottery of Moldova and private partner about 81.5 million lei. Also the disadvantage of the National Lottery of Moldova is in the vending machine being assigned a higher volume of obligations and expenses compared to those of the private partner, and the share of the total gross income of the game that belongs to the National Lottery of Moldova is 51%,” he said.

Prosecutors note that favoring the interests of third parties to the detriment of the state's interests by tax exemption harmed the state budget worth over 400 million lei.

The General Prosecutor's Office initiated a criminal case on abuse of office, committed by public persons in personal material interest or in the interest of third parties by assigning for the benefit of foreign companies, according to dubious schemes, the field of gambling, resulting in damage to the national public budget.