The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office interacted repeatedly with INTERPOL and with the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau, offering all the materials and information required for putting Vladimir Plahotniuc on the wanted list. For now, it hasn’t been informed about any decision taken in this regard, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) noted in a response to an inquiry made by IPN.

“The International Police Cooperation Division of the General Police Inspectorate recently informed the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office about the decision by the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files of the INTERPOL General Secretariat to put off the adoption of a decision on this case until the next session of the Commission set for June 29 – July 3 for the reason that additional elements were received and are to be reviewed until the assessment of data compliance is finalized,” stated the PGO.

On May 18, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office issued a new ordinance for indicting Plahotniuc. He is charged with the founding and managing of a criminal organization, considerable swindle and money laundering.

“After the indictment is translated into English, it will be submitted to the competent authorities of the U.S. so that the aforementioned is extradited and held accountable in the Republic of Moldova,” says the PGO’s response.

The Chisinau City Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Plahotniuc for a 30-day period on May 22. His lawyer Lucian Rodac said “the accusations against Vladimir Plahotniuc are made in a pre-electoral period when those who are now in power plunged society into a deep crisis and face situations when they need to distract the people’s attention from the real problems and from the state in which the Republic of Moldova is now.”

“All the accusations made against Vladimir Plahotniuc are unfounded and are not based on real facts and could never be proven as they weren’t committed in reality,” said the lawyer’s message.