The former businessman, lawmaker and power broker Vladimir Plahotniuc fled Moldova in 2019, as he faced a series of corruption charges.
A court in Moldova sentenced on Wednesday oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison over the disappearance of $1 billion from the country’s banking system.
The former businessman and lawmaker controlled Moldova as a “captured state” from 2013 to 2019, and had de facto control over the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities despite never holding a formal government position.
He fled the country in June 2019 after his government collapsed and he faced a series of corruption charges.
The most serious was complicity in the scheme that led to money disappearing from Moldovan banks in 2014, which at the time was equivalent to around one-eighth of the country’s GDP, in what was known as “theft of the century”.
A Chișinău judge announced the ruling on Wednesday.
The court also ordered the seizure of some $60 million from Plahotniuc’s accounts, said prosecutor Alexandru Cernei after the sentencing.
Last year, he was extradited from Greece after being arrested at Athens airport under on an Interpol international alert.
He has dismissed the charges, describing the trial as “political” and “flawed from the outset.” His lawyer said he would appeal.
From 2013 to 2019, Plahotniuc took control over Moldova’s key institutions through the Democratic Party, which he led.
He used law enforcement to target political and business rivals and according to the US State Department meddled in Moldova’s elections. He was added to Washington’s sanctions list in 2022.
He was said to have control over administrative, financial institutions and the media land even the Constitutional Court was viewed as another of his levers of power.
