Acting prosecutor general Eduard Harunjen denies the existence in the United States of an investigation into the theft of the US$1 billion committed in Moldova, about which a company that allegedly represents the ex-deputy head of National Anticorruption Center’s Money Laundering Service Mihail Gofman announced. In an interview for the weekly “Ziarul de Garda”, quoted by IPN, the prosecutor said that Gofman behaves cowardly by making public statements and refusing to present himself for questioning.
“There is no investigation. It is only a letter by an NGO whose goal is to make a show. We have an official letter from the U.S. Embassy, which says that what Gofman does in the U.S. has nothing to do with the U.S. Government. Mister Gofman, as a former officer, showed cowardice. He made some statements in the public sphere but does not come to be questioned. Nobody intends to arrest him as a witness. Nobody arrested him when he was investigated and his property was investigated,” stated Eduard Harunjen.
Asked why Mihail Gofman and the former employee of Banca Sociala Sergiu Sagaidac weren’t summoned for questioning before they made those accusations, Eduard Harunjen said there was no evidence showing that these can be witnesses in the related cases. “We cannot summon everyone. We invite only those who we are sure know something,” he stated.
The acting prosecutor general referred also to the suspect deaths that were reportedly connected with the bank frauds. “The collector from Hancesti who worked for Banca de Economii was an elderly man. He shot himself before the eyes of his daughter and minor granddaughter with a gun that he was to yield up. This man had no connection with the case of burning of the vehicle that transported the bank’s documents, as it was rumored. The person who drove that vehicle is alive and is also investigated. The man who shot himself is not connected with the bank fraud and probably didn’t even know who Shor or the firm Klassika Force was. This is an aberration,” said the prosecutor.
Eduard Harunjen noted that about 400 people die this way annually in Moldova. This year so far 250 people committed suicide. “I also possess information about the poisoning of the ex-division head at the National Bank of Moldova, who died. This year we have 67 such cases,” he stated.
On July 21, the company Frontier Solutions sent a letter to Eduard Harunjen and to anticorruption prosecutor Adriana Betisor whereby it informs, among others, about the opening of an investigation into the Moldovan bank frauds in the U.S. The letter says the company represents Mihail Gofman in his cooperation with officials of the law enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice of the U.S.
