Prosecutor's office proposed new ways to recover stolen money from banking system

Chisinau, 8 September /MOLDPRES/- Money stolen from the banking system can be recovered in two ways: criminal and civil. The General Prosecutor's Office today announced new strategic approaches.

According to a statement issued by the institution, the Strategy for recovering the financial means stolen from the banking system, in fact, was developed during the “captured state”, in circumstances and by unknown persons.

"Although it is claimed that this strategic document was developed in June 2018 by the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, CNA and ARBI, and subsequently presented publicly by former Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen and former Deputy Anticorruption Prosecutor Adriana Bețișor, it was never registered in the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office or the General Prosecutor's Office, CNA or ARBI, was not approved by any joint order and no traces of work were identified with this document, the operative information managed on the case indicating that it was prepared outside the Prosecutor's Office and the other two institutions. not signed by any subject, this strategic document did not receive the status of an official document and therefore it is not clear how it was later found in certain works undertaken. by the Parliament and the Government, including in the Memorandum of the Republic of Moldova - EU ”, the communiqué reads.

According to the quoted source, the circumstances of the issuance of this document continue to be investigated and clarified in a criminal investigation.

At the same time, the Prosecutor's Office "considers that for the effectiveness of the fraudulent money recovery process, the state needs a vision and a complex strategic document, but the elaboration and implementation of such a Strategy goes beyond the powers of the Prosecutor's Office. ".

In this regard, in order to streamline the process of recovering fraudulent financial means, on May 18, 2021, the Prosecutor's Office developed and, together with the National Anticorruption Center, the State Tax Service, the Service for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering signed the Order on upon the approval of the Mechanism for recovering the financial means stolen from the banking system, normative act in which the actions and sub-actions necessary to be undertaken by these institutions, executors, deadlines and progress indicators were concretely established.

“We emphasize that these activities cover only the criminal dimension of the subject, while the civilian segment of the problem is omitted, the approach limiting the viewfinder and the state's capacities to recover its fraudulent assets. We consider imminent the need to develop at Government or Parliament level a strategic legal document regulating a complex range of activities that would result in the use of the tools and possibilities offered by criminal and civil procedure law, with the identification and establishment of competent institutions to follow. to be involved, progress indicators, deadlines for submitting information and the person in charge of maintaining the database on the subject, analysis, generalization and communication of results - Parliament, the Presidency, society and, as appropriate, international entities ", it is also said in the press release.