Former head of the Democratic Party of Moldova, oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, has been sentenced by a court in Chișinău to 19 years in prison. He was found guilty of stealing a billion dollars from the country's banking system. Three more criminal cases against Plahotniuc are under investigation, BBC writes about it.
According to the court's decision, Plahotniuc is deprived of the right to hold certain public positions for 5 years and will have to pay the state about 60 million dollars.
Prosecutors requested 25 years for Plahotniuc — 15 years for fraud and 10 years for money laundering on an especially large scale, reported the Moldovan publication NewsMaker. As MOLDPRES notes, this is the maximum possible term for the totality of crimes with which the oligarch is accused.
The prosecution also requested the confiscation of Plahotniuc's property to compensate for damages and cover costs associated with the businessman's extradition from Greece.
Plahotniuc's defense demanded his acquittal. The oligarch's lawyer, Lucian Rogac, insisted that the trial was too hasty, and there were errors in the calculations in the case materials, amounting to millions of euros.
"I am not a saint, but I did not participate in the theft of a billion," Plahotniuc said at the last court session on March 25.
