A fugitive Moldovan oligarch has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail for his role in a $1 billion dollar bank theft case eight years ago.
Ilan Shor, who leads the populist pro-Russia Shor Party, was convicted on Thursday of fraud and money laundering in the case of $1 billion that went missing from Moldovan banks in 2014. The ruling is final.
The Court of Appeal ordered the confiscation of $290 million of his assets.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said the ruling was “demanded by the citizens” and that it is the “only way justice can gain legitimacy, through legal decisions that punish thieves.”
The Israeli-born a businessman fled Moldova in 2019 to evade the charges and has since been living in exile in Israel. He was initially sentenced in 2015 but his appeal dragged on for several years.
The Shor Party which has six seats in Moldova’s 101-seat Parliament has organized protests against the pro-European government over high energy prices and soaring inflation which had a year-on-year rate of almost 22 % in March, according to Moldova’s central bank.
