Moldova
In 2014, approximately USD 1 billion was stolen overnight from three Moldovan banks. The National Bank of Moldova acted quickly to bail out the three banks by allocating money from national reserves, with the debt eventually transferred to taxpayers. The money is believed to have been laundered through several European countries. Since then, Moldova has made extensive efforts to strengthen its anti-corruption and asset recovery frameworks. CiFAR has been working to support civil society partners in Moldova since 2018, focussing on both asset recovery and anti-corruption sanctions.
Overview
Moldova saw massive corruption at the highest government levels over the last decades. Acts of corruption were de facto facilitated by the Moldovan state through some of its institutions, destroying the country’s fragile credibility before its international partners and its own citizens. Once acclaimed as the Eastern Partnership good student, holding “the highest mark for deep and sustainable democracy”, Moldova became a captured state and a regional security threat for the European Union.
Although corruption was widespread in Moldova, two cases in particular shocked the Moldovan public and severely damaged the country’s image and credibility: the Russian Laundromat and the USD 1 billion bank theft. These acts of grand corruption turned the country towards kleptocracy, and heralded a dramatic backslide in democratic standards, freedom of expression, freedom of the mass media, freedom of assembly and especially peaceful protest.
Since the 2021 parliamentary elections gave the PAS (Party of Action and Solidarity) a majority, there has been a strong focus on the fight against corruption. This change has been seen by international organisations and local civil society as an encouraging sign to curb widespread corruption and efforts have been made to reform asset recovery efforts.
Our work in Moldova
Since 2018 CiFAR has engaged with civil society in Moldova and supported them to strengthen the national and international response to the Billion Dollar Bank Fraud case and asset recovery more broadly. Our work in Moldova focusses on:
support for civil society action on asset recovery;
building momentum for sanctions and moving from sanctions to asset recovery;
participation of the public and non-state actors; and
building networks between Moldovan and other European civil society organisations.
Given the long time period since the Billion Dollar Bank fraud case was uncovered, a strong priority is working with partners to ensure that the case remains worked on and that reforms are made to prevent similar actions from taking place in the future.