Five persons, who include the former director of the Chisinau-based National College of Winegrowing and Winemaking, were arrested on charges of swindle. These are suspected of falsification of public documents and appropriation attempt that resulted in significant damage to the state, IPN reports.
According to the National Anticorruption Center, the suspects attempted to appropriate property that belonged to the College, using false court judgments. These invoked alleged sale-purchase contracts signed in the 1990s with the College’s administration by which the institution’s property was signed over to the swindlers.
Thus, based on fictional court decisions, the illegally obtained property was registered with the Chisinau Local Cadaster Office. This includes an administrative building, a drugstore, a laboratory, a module for keeping food products, a shed and 12 hectares of land to the total value of several million lei.
It was established that all the documents to which the suspects made reference were false, including the sale-purchase contracts and court judgments.
The five were remanded in custody for 72 hours. These face a fine of up to 20,000 lei or up to six years in jail and ban on holding particular public posts or performing particular activities for s period of up to three years.
