Among a striking multitude of appalling violations of human rights in Moldova, there is one which stands out due to its unprecedented magnitude, unparalleled impudence and profound repercussions over the entire country and particularly its banking and insurance sectors. In this Brief Note we introduce the raider attacks of 2010-2011, cases of an utmost social resonance in Moldova.
Due to the complicity and personal involvement of the most powerful state dignitaries (heads of Moldovan courts, Prosecutor General, director of Anticorruption Centre, Governor of the National Bank, members of Moldovan Parliament and Govern), nor even the human rights organisations on the spot have dared to address the cases, preferring to turn the blind eye on such an uncomfortable subject only not to annoy the country's dictator. It left the victims alone before the Moldovan repressive machine.
A "raider attack" is a form of organised crime, involving the country's highest ranking prosecutors and judges, who act concertedly in order to rob and subsequently persecute the legitimate owners by means of fabricated criminal cases. As a phenomenon, the raider attacks have emerged in the nineties in Russia and Ukraine and have been later imported into Moldova.
The raider attack scenario necessarily implies the fabrication of criminal cases against the dispossessed target victims in order to reduce them to silence and deter from further struggle for their legitimate properties and rights. Unless the robbed victims give up, they get sentenced, jailed and gagged.
For a raider attack to succeed, the core state institutions (judiciary, Prosecutor General’s Office, Anticorruption Centre, other coercive agencies, law-enforcing and regulatory bodies) must necessarily act in tight interlocking complicity with the raider, who has also to ensure his decisive political influence in the country. Thus, the state pivotal agencies, institutionally meant to protect and enshrine the rule of law, prove to be the most brutal transgressors of the said fundamental legal norms. For this gang of rogue prosecutors and venal judges, enrolled in an overwhelming plunder and persecution mechanism, the raider attacks turned into a highly lucrative business.
Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, article „Bring Moldova Back From the Brink” in The New York Times, 10 August 2015:
The state is still in the hands of oligarchs. [...] The government must immediately begin purging corrupt officials from public bodies. [...] As a start, the dozens of judges — some very high-profile — who have been accused of egregiously abusing their power should be investigated. [...] The Anti-Corruption Center, the National Integrity Commission and the General Prosecutor’s Office must be set on an independent footing. [...] This captured state must be returned to its citizens.
Vladimir Socor, Jamestown Foundation, Washington, 1 July 2016:
It is confirmed that the Republic of Moldova is a captured state, and not by oligarchy, but by a single person (Plahotniuc). A person that does not have equivalent in the Republic Moldova as wealth and influence and who can manipulate justice and other systems in his own interest.
In Moldova, the raider attacks have attained their climax of rage in 2010-2011, in the aftermath of which about 80% of the domestic banking and insurance sectors have been concentrated in the raiders’ hands. The biggest victims of those outrageous dispossessions are ⇲ Viorel Topa and ⇲ Victor Topa, two Moldovan investors and partners (although they share the same name, they are not relatives).
Before the raider attacks against their properties, they owned considerable shareholdings in two banks (Victoriabank and Banca de Economii) and two insurance companies (ASITO and Victoria Asigurari). The Topas were subjected to two waves of attacks: in May 2010 in Victoriabank and Victoria Asigurari, and a year later, in the summer of 2011, in Banca de Economii, ASITO and two remaining shareholding companies in Victoriabank.
It was later dependably established by English and Scottish Courts that the organiser, perpetrator and the ultimate beneficiary of the Topas' robbery is their former co-shareholder, the then First Deputy Speaker of Moldovan Parliament, the master of the Moldovan Democratic Party and the one who acquired the dominant political control over Moldova, Vladimir Plahotniuc, or Vlad Ulinici, or Vladislav Novak, by his other identities discovered. Having under his undivided control the Prosecutor General’s Office, the entire judiciary and the Anticorruption Centre, in only few recent years, he became the wealthiest man of Moldova by means of raider attacks, plundering private and public properties and use of the repressive organs against the robbed victims.
Vladimir Plahotniuc, the actual Chairman of the Democratic Party at absolute power in Moldova, usurped by non-democratic and criminal methods
The Topas have attended a series of Antimafia press conferences during the end of 2010, as shown below. For having dared to publicly testify about Plahotniuc as the perpetrator of the raider attacks against them, three punitive fabricated criminal cases were framed up against the Topas, their families and relatives. This wanton arbitrariness ended up with the Topas’ abusive conviction, in trials in absentia, on manifestly spurious charges, with no right to hear witnesses and plead against the invented indictments, with a defiant and inconceivable denial of fundamental justice. The perpetrator and his accomplices wanted the victims annihilated.
Once Plahotniuc got full control over the Moldovan judiciary and prosecutor's office, he started to grab public and private properties, meanwhile threatening the victims he robbed with fabricated criminal cases. If they didn't give up fighting for their rights and properties, they got sentenced, jailed or annihilated. It was the Plahotniuc's way of becoming one of the wealthiest men in Eastern Europe.
[Use of judiciary and law-enforcement, diagram here]
The international monitoring organisations use the terms of "captive state", "hijacked state institutions" (judiciary and public prosecution) and "cleptocracy" for modern Moldova since 2010. Due to their magnitude and conspicuity, the subjects of raider attacks and judicial arbitrariness in Moldova, and particularly the Topas case, were reflected in the European press
(Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Frankfurter Allgemeine, BBC, The New York Times, Business New Europe, Deutsche Welle, Wiener Zeitung, The Hill, Free Europe, Huffington Post and others)
and reports of international monitoring organisations
(Freedom House, Global Research, Centre for Eastern Studies, Transparency International, PACE, European Council on Foreign Relations, US Atlantic Council, Jamestown Foundation, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Friedrich Naumann Foundation Germany and others),
EU Reporter, London, 23 November 2015, article of James Drew: Viorel Topa: “If we had not left Moldova five years ago, we would be in jail and probably not alive today”.
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 9 February 2016, "A shady powerseeker Oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc is running the Republic of Moldova", by Karl-Peter Schwarz: - They (*Viorel Topa and Victor Topa) are the victims of a blatant raid, masterminded by Plahotniuc. At an annual assembly of the shareholders of the Victoriabank, their representatives were suddenly confronted with the declaration that the ownership structure had been changed. The evening before, a group of judges had secretly and simultaneously in five different judgements ordered the seizure of the shares of both businessmen. Victor Topa alleged that on the same day he was threatened by Plahotniuc over the phone. In November 2012, Plahotniuc was dropped as Deputy Speaker. He was accused of "the subversion of state institutions, the illegal expropriation of shares in financial companies and of influencing investigations".
Freedom House, report “Nations in transit, Moldova, 2012”: - In 2011, fraudulent misappropriation of stock from chief shareholders in five financial institutions set off a chain of investigations and recrimination between different political parties and public institutions. The so-called “raider attacks” reflected the insecurity of a number of Moldova’s largest financial institutions, and the affair became symbolic of political manipulation of the justice system. […] News of the actual fraud (the so-called “raider attacks”) was soon followed by charges that justice and judicial officials had either failed to act in the case or supported the perpetrators. Two of the main victims of the fraud, Viorel and Victor Topa.
Andrew Wilson, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 28 May 2013, article “The Shot Heard From Moscow to Brussels”: - The scourge of so-called raiderstvo [corporate raiding] actually increased. In 2010-2011 Moldova-Agroindbank (the largest domestic bank), Victoriabank (the second largest), Banca de Economii (the Savings Bank of Moldova) and the largest insurance company, ASITO, all saw sudden and often unexplained changes of ownership to obscure offshore companies, usually on the basis of secret court proceedings. Two of the alleged victims, Victor and Viorel Topa, now have a case before the English courts, accusing Plahotniuc of orchestrating the change to seize their assets.
On 19 May 2010, Victor Topa and Viorel Topa found out that their shares in Victoriabank had been transferred to unknown individuals and offshores. As it turned out, the embezzlement was based on sham court decisions and their stealth enforcement, about which the Topas had no knowledge. Secrecy is central for raider attacks. In that evening, Vladimir Plahotniuc threatened the Topas with criminal cases if they go public about the robbery.
Few months later, on 11 August 2010, within the Antimafia press conference, Viorel Topa and Victor Topa revealed the name of Vladimir Plahotniuc as the organiser and perpetrator of the raider attack against their properties. Shortly thereafter the Topas received summonses to the Prosecutor General’s Office and were charged with criminal offences. The Prosecutor General had been appointed by Plahotniuc.
Viorel Topa, Victor Topa and Razvan Paveliu at Antimafia press conferences
Viorel Topa was sentenced based on two ten-year old contracts, to which he had no attribution. Viorel Topa neither negotiated, nor signed the contracts — they were approved by the bank's Council and executed in accordance with the contractual terms and conditions. The striking absurdity is not a deterrent when the prosecutors and judges are commanded to sentence Plahotniuc’s foes — the fabricated case is just adorned with some papers in order to feign the court’s formal proceedings.
Victor Topa was sentenced based on an invented event. He was indicted in respect of an alleged blackmail in Moscow, ostensibly committed against Ms Galina Proidisvet in Moscow, where she purported to be apprehended by the Police. In defiance of his duty, the prosecutor opposed to check the Proidisvet's deposition, while both the Russian authorities (Police) and the witness clearly denied Ms Proidisvet’s statements as being deliberately false. The Prosecutor General, appointed by Plahotniuc, ordered the commencement of the criminal case “based on Proidisvet’s complaint” a day before that very complaint was filed. It is noteworthy that Ms Proidisvet herself proved to be one of the beneficiaries and Plahotniuc's accomplices in the raider attack against Victor Topa. The judge hastened to sentence Victor Topa although the case file was absent (in another court at that moment).
In the autumn of the next year (2011) Victor Topa and Viorel Topa were sentenced to 10 and 8 years of imprisonment in closed penitentiary (so as to preclude contacts with the outer world), within simulated trials, in absentia of the accused and their lawyers, on manifestly false charges, with no right to hear witnesses and plead against the invented indictments, with a defiant and inconceivable denial of basic justice and right to a fair trial. The prosecutors and judges, who concocted and partook in the judicial crime, have been later promoted and lavishly rewarded.
The Topas case is often referred to as the Moldovan version of the Magnitsky case from Russia (the raider attacks and subsequent punitive reprisals). The only essential distinction is that the Topas and their families were lucky to flee Moldova and hence elude the fatal imprisonment, which in the case of Magnitsky ended up with his murder in the Moscow’s prison. By the design of the raider attacks, the annihilation of victims is the closing act of this sort of crime. In 2012 the US Congress adopted the “Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act”, to which the EU adhered on 2 April 2014. Since the very moment the Topas arrived to Germany, the German authorities and the Interpol have been relentlessly bombarded with extradition requests. All requests were rejected.
See the article in EU Reporter, London "If we had not left Moldova five years ago, we would be in jail and probably not alive today".
The Topas became an enduring priority of Moldovan repressive organs acting at the behest of Plahotniuc. In his interview of 12 May 2016, Plahotniuc provided specific information about his enemies, Viorel Topa and Victor Topa, the only foes he deems worthy of naming explicitly. The entire state apparatus has been involved in hunting the Topas, as revealed below in the section 17 "Interpol's resolutions".
By means of the subverted judiciary and Prosecutor General’s Office, Vladimir Plahotniuc grabbed the largest banks and insurance companies of Moldova. Such plunder was the Plahotniuc’s way of becoming the richest man in Moldova, almost overnight, without a single cent invested. Viorel Topa and Victor Topa are by far not the only victims, robbed by Plahotniuc within the raider attacks. Over 24 injured from various businesses testified at the Antimafia conferences against Plahotniuc, the perpetrator of their robbery. However, under the pressure, bullying and intimidation of the Plahotniuc’s repressive machine, most of them have been later reduced to silence, fearing for their lives and families. What distinguishes the Topas from other victims is that they did not give up fighting. They have also striven to consolidate the democratic opposition against the regime.
Antimafia press conference of 11 August 2010. The robbed victims, representing various businesses in Moldova, are testifying against Plahotniuc as perpetrator of robber of their assets. Soon after that conference, Victor Topa and Viorel Topa were summoned to the Prosecutor General, the Plahotniuc's appointee
16. English and Scottish Courts on Plahotniuc as beneficiary of raider attacks
On 8 March 2012, the High Court of Justice (London) and on 9 March 2012, the Court of Cession of Scotland (Edinburgh), found Vladimir Plahotniuc as the ultimate beneficial owner of the shares, embezzled from the Topas. Plahotniuc concentrated the stolen shares of Victoriabank, Banca de Economii, ASITO and Victoria Asigurari in his Dutch holding, OTIV Prime Financial B.V., Amsterdam, of which he is the sole owner. Through his godson Andrian Candu (the incumbent Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament), Plahotniuc sold them to Platon/Kontievsky in order to cash the raids' spoils. In 2014, the Topas published the related documents, comprising contracts, SWIFT-transfers, escrow accounts signed by Candu, as well as the testimonies of the witnesses. Instead of prosecuting the perpetrators, the Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office launched harsh reprisals against the witnesses and victims.
English and Scottish Courts found Plahotniuc as the ultimate beneficial owner of the banks' shares, stolen within the raider attacks
Since Viorel Topa and Victor Topa fled Moldova in 2011, the entire Moldovan state has been striving to arrest and extradite them, relentlessly submitting repetitive requests to the Interpol. At the Interpol's 84th (September 2012), 85th (January 2013) and 86th (May 2013) sessions, the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files examined and determined the Topas cases as manifestly politically driven and as being submitted in purpose of reprisals. After the first attempt to place a “Red Notice” and arrest Victor Topa and Viorel Topa, the Moldovan authorities made another repeated request on 24 November 2015, which was repeatedly rejected at the Interpol’s session of 16-18 December 2015. Then the Moldovan authorities undertook the third attempt, which was repeatedly rejected at the Interpol’s 99th session (27 February - 3 March 2017).
The reprisals against the Topas became a persistent priority of the entire Moldovan state apparatus, under the command of Plahotniuc. Once the Topas fled to Germany and registered with the German authorities, all the extradition requests were sent there. The German Ministry of Justice and of Foreign Affairs rejected all such requests. Here is the table of repressive actions undertaken by the Moldovan authorities against the Topas.
As mentioned above, from the very day Viorel Topa and Victor Topa left Moldova, the entire state apparatus sought their arrest and extradition. The table below shows the requests and responses to the Moldovan authorities:
Nov 2011
Victor Topa, Viorel Topa, Razvan Paveliu and Vladimir Morari escape the arrest and imprisonment in Moldova and flee to Germany:
5 Dec 2011
German Federal Department of Justice to General Prosecution Office, objection to search and extradite Victor Topa as requested by the Moldovan authorities;
14 Dec 2011
General Prosecution Office to German Federal Criminal Bureau, objection of extradition of Victor Topa and his lawyer, Vladimir Morari, expressed in unanimity by the German Federal Department of Justice and Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
May 2013
Interpol’s 86th session, the cases of Viorel Topa and Victor Topa determined as being of political nature, Red Notice requests of the Moldovan authorities rejected;
18 Dec 2015
Repetitive Red Notice requests of the Moldovan authorities of 24 November 2015 concerning Viorel Topa and Victor Topa repeatedly rejected. This decision is final;
20 Oct 2015
Verbal Note of German Federal Foreign Office to the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova, extradition of Victor Topa and Vladimir Morari rejected, breach of rule of law among the grounds. This decision is final;
17 Nov 2015
Verbal Note of German Federal Foreign Office to the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova, extradition of Viorel Topa rejected, breach of rule of law among the grounds;
11 Jan 2016
Hessian Ministry of Justice to Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt, within “Assistance for extradition and execution of sentence with the Republic of Moldova”, execution of sentence concerning Victor Topa, Vladimir Morari and Viorel Topa rejected;
10 Feb 2016 21 Apr 2016
Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt reviews of a new request of Moldovan authorities concerning the transfer of the prosecution proceedings against Victor Topa, Vladimir Morari and Viorel Topa;
28 Apr 2016
Public Prosecutor’s Office Hessen, confirmation that extradition requests from 2011-2012 of Moldovan authorities against Viorel Topa are rejected, file closed/dismissed;
21 Mar 2017
Interpol’s 99th session, new repetitive Red Notice request of the Moldovan authorities concerning Viorel Topa is rejected as “matter of a predominantly political character” (politically motivated reprisals);
13 Jun 2017
Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt, action against Viorel Topa, Victor Topa and Vladimir Morari rejected, file closed/dismissed;
23 Jan 2018
The appeal against the previous decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt is rejected. This decision is final and no longer challengeable;
3 May 2018
The challenge of the final decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt to reject actions against Viorel Topa, Victor Topa and Vladimir Morari are dismissed by the Frankfurt Court (Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main). This decision is final and no longer challengeable.
Remark:
This table does not include requests which were rejected without examination, nor does it include repetitive requests from Moldova to the German authorities.
The related gross violations, defiantly committed during the raider attacks and further arbitrary convictions, are subjects of cases versus the Republic of Moldova lodged before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR, Strasbourg). The cases are presented by Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC, London; Prof. Dr Hans-Georg Kamman and Frederic Louis, WilmerHale, Brussels-Frankfurt, and Tom Hickman, Blackstone Chambers, London. Given the circumstances of blatant denial of justice in Moldova, the ECHR is the only effective remedy, whereas Topas can hardly afford wrestling with the entire state and its still Soviet-type repressive organs. On 16 May 2019, ECHR communicated the case to the Moldovan Government.
20. PACE declaration on the Topas, plan of their murder
The PACE declaration no. 617 of 11 October 2016 outlines that
“key witnesses, such as Victor and Viorel Topa [...], who publicly expressed their willingness to testify about the involvement of tycoon Plahotniuc in money laundering and illegal financial operations, were subjected to political persecution.”
"In 2013, Proca was arrested in Moscow while preparing his next
crimes — the murder of Victor Topa and Viorel Topa [...]." (page 73)
"The press reported that Mr Plahotniuc’s hitman, Vitalie Proca had already got the order to murder the Topas, and only the extradition of the hitman from Moscow to Romania prevented them from being killed." (page 115)
The lack of reaction to a crime always encourages the perpetrators for even more brazen ones. The inevitable happened two years after the raider attacks, when the hijacked banks (particularly, the Banca de Economii) were used for the embezzlement of one billion US dollars from the National Reserves of Moldova in November 2014 [diagram here]. The international community has dubbed the theft of such a huge amount (one eighth of the Moldovan GDP) as the "heist of the century". It is worth recalling that the National Reserves were formed with the US and EU contributions. Thus, it is safe to say that the European and American taxpayers were robbed as well, while their specialised institutions keep idling.
When an individual grabs control over the country's judiciary and law-enforcing agencies, he then can seize any public or private property, entire industries and sectors of economy; jail and annihilate the robbed victims; bully and hush the witnesses; persecute the opposition and his political enemies; clamp down on the free press; subdue other state institutions, government and parliament. This is how democracy collapses into dictatorship.
For a raider attack to succeed, the raider needs all the state pivotal institutions to act under his unconditional control and in tight interlocking complicity. This is why the raider attacks are the iconic symbol of a captive state, a snapshot of a giggling usurper.
For the local and international organisations for protection the human rights and monitoring the rule of law, it must be inconceivable to picture a higher priority than the capture of an entire state. Nonetheless, the raider attacks of 2010-2011 remain unadressed, the victims and witnesses unprotected, the perpetrators and accomplices unpunished, the rule of law unrestored, to these days. The nowadays Moldova is the dire consequence of the lack of reaction for more than twelve years.
The EU , US , UK , Canada , Switzerland and Norway added Plahotniuc to their Sanctions lists. Plahotniuc fled Moldova in June 2019. His whereabouts remain unknown. Vladimir Plahotniuc, aka Vlad Ulinici, aka Vladislav Novak Foto: Balkaninsight.com EU Sanctions, 30 May 2023 “ Vladimir Plahotniuc is subject to numerous criminal proceedings in the Republic of Moldova [...] Vladimir Plahotniuc is responsible for actions and implementing policies which undermine and threaten the democracy, the rule of law , stability or security in the Republic of Moldova [...].” NOTE: The EU Regulation mentions 5 of Plahotniuc’s known identities, among which a Russian one, along with his Russian passport no. 0960304018797. ▸ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L:2023:140I:FULL European Parliament Resolution, 19 Apr 2023 “[...] whereas oligarchs Ilan Șor and Vladimi...
U.S. Department of State 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Moldova U.S. Department of State 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Moldova Section E: DENIAL OF FAIR PUBLIC TRIAL While the law provided for an independent judiciary, judicial independence remained a problem due to problems stemming from corruption and selective justice , in which the law was not applied equally to all and was often selectively enforced for politically motivated reasons . Selective justice remained a problem and lawyers complained of instances in which their clients’ rights to a fair trial were denied . ✎ Full report here . See also: the international press on Moldova, a captive state; the raider attacks and their context in Moldova; the list of sanctions against Plahotniuc and grounds for them.
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