Two employees of a mixed railway transport company were arrested on suspicion of abuse of power and money laundering. The two appropriated over US$600,000 commission based on a contract for the provision of services. Considerable damage was this way caused to the company whose associates are Moldova’s Railways, the State Property Fund of Ukraine and Schenker Logistics Romania, IPN reports, quoting the National Anticorruption Center.

In 2009-2018, a Turkish company provided railway transport services to the value of US$2.6 million to the given company. Concomitantly, the Turkish partners made suspicious transfers of money to a nonresident company in Panama, which opened accounts in a Latvian bank. The Service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering identified transfers of over US$1.5 million. Half of this amount ultimately reached the two employees of the mixed company.

The effective beneficiary of the nonresident company in Panama is allegedly the head of the mixed company’s Rail Delivery Section, while his deputy was empowered with the right to sign. The head of the Rail Delivery Section received US$607,000 from the nonresident company on a bank card, which was purportedly the commission from the Turkish company.

On March 29, anticorruption officers and prosecutors carried out searches at the homes and offices of the two suspects and at the head office of the mixed company. The suspects were arrested for 72 hours.