France Arrests Businessman Plahotniuc's Assets Worth $4.3Mln - Moldovan Prosecutors

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2022) A court in France has issued an arrest warrant for the property of Moldovan businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc worth 4.2 million Euros ($4.3 million), Moldova's office of the prosecutor general said on Thursday.

"At the request of the Prosecutor's office for combating organized crime and special cases, the court in Thonon-les-Bains in France issued a restraining order of the property owned by Moldovan citizen Vladimir Plahotniuc in the French city of Sciez, which is one of the elite districts in the country. According to the estimates of the French authorities, the value of the seized assets exceeds 4.2 million euros," the statement read.

The French prosecutors informed their Moldovan colleagues about the court's decision. The arrest will make it possible to confiscate property as part of the criminal case that is being investigated by the Moldovan prosecutor's office, according to the statement.

The seized assets will be managed by a French agency for the return of criminal assets, until a decision on the case is made.

Plahotniuc is a former lawmaker and one of the wealthiest businessmen in Moldova. In November 2017, a court in Moscow sanctioned Plahotniuc's arrest in absentia and put him on the international wanted list on the charges of attempted murder. Russia's ministry of the interior said in February 2019 that the police stopped the activities of an international criminal group, which wired over 37 billion rubles ($1.1 billion at the time) outside Russia in 2013-2014. Plahotniuc was charged in April 2020 alongside with Moldovan politician Renato Usatii for wiring 500 billion rubles from Russia.

In Moldova, Plahotniuc is accused of money laundering, fraud and illegal enrichment, as well as wiring of $1 billion from the country's banking system. The businessman illegally left Moldova in June 2019. The court in Chisinau issued a warrant for Plahotniuc's arrest in absentia several times, the Moldovan prosecutor's office insists on his extradition to his homeland.