Moldovan Ex-Communist Deputies Detained Over Alleged Political Bribes

Police and intelligence officers searched the homes of a number of former Communist Party deputies, suspected of having accepted big bribes in 2015 to change party and serve a now fugitive oligarch.

searched the homes of [13] former Communist Party, PCRM, deputies, and detained four of them on suspicion of corruption and illicit enrichment.

The deputies all quit the PCRM in December 2015, allegedly after accepting hefty bribes from the now fugitive oligarch Plahotniuc to join his Democratic Party, PDM.

February 2, 2022

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/02/02/moldovan-ex-communist-deputies-detained-over-alleged-political-bribes/

Fugitive oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc of Moldova is another figure whose name appears in the Pandora Papers. The exiled former head of the Democratic Party of Moldova, PDM, allegedly held about 180 million US dollars in a trust fund in New Zealand, local investigative media organisation RISE Moldova has written.

Through that company, it alleges, he transferred money to his family living in Switzerland from 2011.

https://balkaninsight.com/2021/10/04/pandora-papers-new-leak-exposes-balkan-peps-hidden-riches/

U.S. officials said that Vlad Plahotniuc, a powerful Moldovan oligarch and political figure linked to a massive bank theft, is in the United States despite being subject to a visa ban earlier this year.

"Vladimir Plahotniuc's corrupt actions undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova," Pompeo tweeted. "The U.S. stands with Moldova in its fight against corruption."

While Plahotniuc’s name is familiar among corruption researchers and experts on former Soviet republics, it is not widely known in broader circles.

Last month, however, his name gained wider currency when U.S. news media revealed that Richard Grenell, the current acting director of national intelligence, had written a series of articles defending Plahotniuc that were published in U.S. newspapers in 2016.

March 19, 2020

https://www.rferl.org/a/us-officials-confirm-moldova-s-plahotniuc-in-u-s-despite-visa-ban-will-seek-his-deportation/30498014.html

On Friday, ProPublica reported that Grenell took undisclosed payments for advocacy work on behalf of Vladimir Plahotniuc, a Moldovan politician who was later accused of corruption. Engle told ProPublica that Grenell was not required to file under the FARA because "he was not working at the direction of a foreign power."

https://skydancingblog.com/2020/02/24/mixed-emotions-monday-reads-fatal-carnival-and-political-purges/