“This Crime Is Worse than a Bank Fraud”. Miсhalko on Dropping Charges against Laundromat Judges

The head of the EU delegation to Moldova Peter Miсhalko defined the withdrawal of charges against the judges in the Laundromat case, as well as reinstatement of some of them in office as “failure” and “nonfulfillment of obligations”. “This is a crime, much worse than banking fraud. Charges against them were dropped, and they were reinstated. This means that six years later no one has been punished for those crimes,” Michalko said on October 30 on the air of Cabinetul din Umbră on Jurnal TV. “No one has been convicted. The court hearings in the Sor case are postponed, the participants are released. This is Moldova’s failure to fulfill its obligations assumed before the international partners in the field of justice. In addition, this is a very bad signal for society and justice,” the diplomat emphasized. Recall, in September 2020, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office dropped charges against 13 out of 15 judges who were accused of “money laundering” and “miscarriage of justice”. The criminal cases of the judges were closed for absence of crime in their actions. Another judge died during the investigation, and another is on the wanted list. After that, the Supreme Council of Magistracy (SCM) reinstated five of them - Sergiu Lebediuc, Serghei Gubenco, Serghei Popovici, Iurie Harbu and Garry Bivol. All of them were removed from office on September 20, 2016 due to their feature in the Laundromat investigation. The SCM also concluded that judges would be paid four years’ salaries while they were removed from office. Today, the official representative of the European Union for foreign policy, Peter Stano, commented on that point saying that withdrawing charges against the judges who appeared in the Laundromat case grossly violates the obligations assumed by the Moldovan authorities in the fight against corruption and money laundering. Stano was also outraged that the process of acquittal of the judges took place behind closed doors and the public was presented with a fait accompli. “All this undermines confidence in government agencies,” he stressed and recalled that tangible reforms in the fight against corruption are a condition for EU financial assistance. Note that the news about the “Moldovan scheme” of Russian money laundering broke in April 2014. The scheme was in effect from 2010 to 2013, involving Russian companies, Moldovan Moldindconbank (allegedly controlled by businessman Veaceslav Platon), companies in various jurisdictions, including in Great Britain, courts of different districts of Moldova and individuals with Moldovan citizenship. In 2013, the then head of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Mihai Poalelungi, asked to prosecute the judges involved in the Laundromat. He noted that the judges were one of the key links in the scheme and issued orders with a mass of violations, thereby legalizing the laundered money. In 2016, the National Anti-Corruption Center detained 16 judges. They were all removed from office for the duration of the investigation.