A new investigation by journalists from Zeppelin.md reveals who are the beneficiaries of the Russian Laundromat in Chisinau. Moreover, the names of those who assured the functioning of the Russian Laundromat scheme on the territory of the Republic of Moldova are also published, and they have benefited from the stealing of the billion of the banks in our country.

INTEGRAL INVESTIGATION:

The Magnitsky Law, adopted by the US Senate on December 6, 2012 and promulgated by President Obama on December 14, 2012, shook the international arena and triggered the worst diplomatic war between Moscow and Washington after the Cold War. By this law, the United States imposed personal sanctions against Russian officials deemed guilty of the death of the Russian auditor Sergei Magnitsky on 16 November 2009 in the Matrosskaya Tishina penitentiary in Moscow. Soon the US sanctions replied with similar measures approved by Canada, Sweden, Latvia and other Western states. Firestone Duncan's consulting firm Serghei Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008 by the Russian MVD after revealing a $230 million (5.4 billion Russian ruble) large-scale theft scheme, of the state budget of the Russian Federation.

The money stolen from the Russian budget in 2007-2008 through fraudulent VAT refunds, with the help of officials from two tax inspectorates in the capital of Russia and MIA coverage in Moscow, were washed in the West under the protection of Russian special services through a Russian the type implemented in 2010-2014.

Contracted by the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, whose taxes were defrauded under the Scheme, auditor Sergei Magnitsky managed to unravel fraud, which led to his fate, his name becoming famous throughout the world. His notoriety cost him his life. Thefts of Moscow with the refund of VAT and money laundering in the West continued after Magnitsky's death.

Like the Russian Laundromat between 2010-2014 years, the Magnitsky Laundromat had a different laundering program, but operated on the same principles, being protected by Russian special services. The criminal case against Magnitsky was filed immediately after the schema was decontaminated by the FSB "K" headquarters in Moscow. This file has hampered the investigation of fraud in the Russian Federation, and it was just the one who deciphered the fraudulent scheme.

Nearly half of the $230 million in the Magnitsky Laundromat, over $113 million, were washed through the Republic of Moldova. As with the 2010-2014 Russian Laundromat, the main task of the Moldovan jurisdiction was to convert money washed from Russia, Russian rubles into hard currency and forward them to the West. Both operations, coordinated by Russian special services, constituted elements of Russia's hybrid war in the region to strengthen its geopolitical influence. Beyond the money laundering task, the special services in Moscow sought to use the washing machines centrifuges to attack the Moldovan financial-banking system, namely the socio-economic destabilization of the country and the change of power from Chisinau with a loyal Kremlin.

After the failure of Vladimir Voronin's landing plan, which had torpedoed in 2003 the Kozak federalization plan of Moldova, which had to take place after the 2005 parliamentary elections, the devastating blow to the Voronin regime was prepared by the Russian special services for 2009 , the year of the next parliamentary elections. The operation was to take place in two stages: 1) the socio-economic destabilization of the country during 2007-2008 and 2) the exploitation of the destabilization of the country through the change of power after the 2009 elections.

The FSB agent, Veaceslav Platon, who had entered Vladimir Voronin's disgrace after 2005, was appointed responsible for the implementation of the plan and thus obtained a perfect opportunity to revenge. In order to fulfill the mission received from the Moscow office, the one that was already titled by the CIS press as the "No.1 raider in the CIS" has chosen as the main target of the BEM, the systemic bank the country where the state owned the stock control package.

Veaceslav Platon divides his attack on the Moldovan financial-banking system in two stages of 2007 and the decisive 2008, the pre-election year. Benefiting from the coverage of the NBM governor Leonid Talmaci and assisted by Grigore Gacikevici, the chairman of the Savings Bank, Plato starts a massive campaign to devalue the state bank.

The method of devaluing the bank is the classic one, to be applied repeatedly and over 3 years, in 2010-2014, by granting non-performing loans. Protection within PCRM is ensured by Grigore Gacikevici, PCRM member and municipal councilor of Chisinau elected on the lists of the Communist Party. Gacikevici is close to Veaceslav Platon, who was active until 2004 as a member of the board of directors of InvestPrivatBank, whose vice president was Platon.

In order for Voronin not to hinder the scheme, on September 6, 2007, the Communist leader's loyalty is bought by granting the Communist Party a credit from the Savings Bank in the amount of 12 million lei, in the autumn of 2007 the party received two more installments, -related to BEM by a total of 22 million lei (about 2 million dollars).

Being the loyalties of the communist government, Platon and Gacikevici, under Talmaci's coverage, start to give bad loans to the left and to the right, and as a result Banca de Economii reports for the first time after years of lucrative activity losses of hundreds of millions of lei for 2007 and 2008.

The most curious thing is that the devaluation of the state bank was tolerated not only by the Communist government, for which the Savings Bank was like a milking cow, but also by the private shareholders of the bank, who looked without any reaction how their property was stolen under their eyes their. The explanation is simple, they acted in complicity with Veaceslav Platon, their loyalty being bought on millions of dollars, which exceeded ten times the dividends they were supposed to receive from the bank's profits.

The largest private shareholder of Banca de Economii was Viorel Topa, chairman of the 1999-2001 bank, which controlled 18.5% of BEM shares. According to a report of the Court of Auditors dated 26 June 2002, Viorel Topa out of the bank from August 19 to 31, 2001, 66.8 million lei (USD 5.8 million) through the offshore Sparks Management Corporation.

Viorel Topa was a good friend of Platon since 2001. Together with his close minister of transports in the Tarlev 1 Communist government, Victor Topa, the two Topa have been controlling since 2005 and VictoriaBank. With the support of Viorel Topa, through a fraudulent credit granted by BEM, Victor Topa managed in March 2000 to privatize the state-owned company Air Moldova. In August 2007, Victor Topa, who in the meantime took over the control over the insurance company ASITO, raises the raider's attack and the actions of former VictoriaBank Vice-President Galina Proidisvet and becomes the largest shareholder of the bank.

Thus, Victor and Viorel Topa, together with Veaceslav Platon, who had control over MoldIndConBank and InvestPrivatBank since 1994, manage to control over 50% of the country's financial and banking system. Moved by a spirit of vendetta and regulation of accounts with communist leader Vladimir Voronin, who in 2001 removed the two Topa from the leadership of Banca de Economii and the transport ministry, respectively, Victor and Viorel Topa became easily partakers of the plan of Veaceslav Platon, approved by the Kremlin, of Voronin's "mazilire".

Meanwhile, while assuring the complicity of the state bank and private shareholders management, Banca de Economii was proposed by Veaceslav Platon to the FSB for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in the Magnitski Laundromat. The laundry would ensure the transfer of dirty money from Moscow to the West and at the same time provide the financial centrifuge that would collapse the Moldovan financial-banking system and also the financing of the palace coup, respectively the installation of a loyal power of the Kremlin in Chisinau.

Next, Veaceslav Platon implements his favorite scheme, the financial carousel. Platon creates two ghost companies in July 2007, SRL Bunicon-Impex and LLC Elenast-Com, and opens accounts with subsidiary No. 1 of the Banca de Economii in Chisinau. As directors and unique fictitious founders of the two enterprises, the residents of the Bunnikovsky Vladimir Petrovici and Stânga Elena Pavlovna Transnistrian Regions. Plato's two ghost businesses from Chisinau were to be the Moscow-West trampoline for the stolen money from Russia's state budget, unveiled by Sergei Magnitski.

Also, beside Jurnal de Chisinau press trust, under their control since 2003, in September 2007, Victor and Viorel Topa provide a new propaganda portrait. The CCA in Chisinau deprives the Romanian Television Society of the broadcasting rights of the TVR1 channel on the national frequency 2. The frequency is granted to the British company TLF M International, the owner of TV 2 Plus, whose director is Răzvan Paveliu, none other than his brother-in-law of Viorel Topa, his sister's husband, Diana Topa.

At the beginning of November 2007, the first ruble transfers from Moscow began to run. On the BUNNON-IMPEX account of Banca de Economii, the first hundreds of millions of rubles are transferred from the Russian company Millitaun Limited from the bank KB CK - Bank OOO. As the destination of the transfer figure "payment for construction materials".

In addition, Bunicon-Impex SRL converts Russian rubles into US dollars and transfers them abroad to offshore companies, the British Virgin Islands, Belize, as well as European jurisdictions such as Latvia and Lithuania. Thus, Veaceslav Platon tests for the first time the scheme, which will be found over 3 years in the Russian Laundromat.

Immediately, on November 2, 2007 Banca de Economii notes the suspicious transfer and alerts the CCCEC Prevention of Money Laundering Service. Veaceslav Platon covers the scheme through Deputy Head of Service, Mihail Gofman, whom he pays monthly with envelopes of tens of thousands of dollars. Gofman becomes Plato's man and protector of the Magnitsky Laundromat in CCECC. Thus, Veaceslav Platon learns in real time about the actions of the law institutions in Chisinau that can threaten the scheme. Respectively, Plato immediately learns about the alert from BEM to CCECC. Gofman does not interfere, block any suspicious transfers, and allows money in the Magnitski Laundromat to flow further.

Just over three weeks after Plato alerts FSB patrons in Moscow on November 20, 2007, the CCEC Service headed by Mihail Gofman sends a letter to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, "in order to determine the origin of money". The Russian authorities did not react to the CCECC letter from Chisinau, the Magnitsky Laundromat being protected by the Russian special services.

On February 12, 2008 Banca de Economii repeatedly alerts the CCECC Money Laundering Prevention Service, this time regarding suspicious transfers of hundreds of millions of rubles coming from Russia to LLC Elenast-Com. Transfers came from the accounts of the Moscow bank Moskovskii Filial OAO NAB Krainiy Sever of Kareras Limited INN, OOO Starmiks INN, Rosina Limeted INN. As the destination of the transfers, the same "payment for building materials" was used. SRL Elenast-Com has also immediately converted the Russian rubles into US dollars and transferred them abroad to foreign partners from offshore areas, the British Virgin Islands and Belize.

Gofman's service again does not interfere with or block the suspicious transfers. He responds in the same way as in 2007, one week after receiving the alert from Banca de Economii, on February 18, 2008, he sends a new letter to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, "in order to determine the origin of the money means" as well as the previous one.

Under the pretext that "the Russian side did not respond to his requests and no suspicions about the origin of the money were found", Mihail Gofman shucks and archives the file. Miraculously, immediately after Mihail Gofman's brother, Alexei Gofman is hired at Banca de Economii, being appointed responsible for granting loans and managing pledges. In 2011, he was promoted to BEM President Grigore Gacikevici, and by this move, Veaceslav Platon took over the process of granting bad loans to the Bank Savings, becoming the coordinator of the bank's devaluation.

Meanwhile, after testing the scheme, SRL Bunicon-Impex received 6 transfers from OAO NAB KRAINII SEVER from Moscow on behalf of the Banca de Economii for 3 days between 4 and 6 February 2008, from the correspondent account of 6 transfers from OAO NAB KRAINII SEVER from Moscow ALFA -BANK Moscow, amounting to 637,888,600 Russian rubles. The transfer destination includes the same "payment for building materials", according to contract no. 24/08 of February 1, 2008. SRL Bunicon-Impex converts Russian rubles into dollars and for 4 days, between February 5th and February 8th, 2008 transfers USD 27,375,589.00 from Banca de Economii from Chisinau to various foreign jurisdictions: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and part of the money has returned, already washed in the Russian Federation. Payment destinations: "prepayment for construction materials and equipment". $1.2 million from the Elenast-Com's Banca de Economii SRL account is transferred to the Latvian bank Rietumu Banka, on behalf of the offshore company of Panama, Kelway Trading SA. Note the name of this company because it is the red thread that will go through our entire investigation!

At the same time, SRL Elenast-Com, operated between 8 and 13 February 2008 10 transfers, amounting to 656 585 000,00 Russian rubles, from the same bank in Moscow, OAO NAB KRAINII SEVER, from the correspondent account of ALFA-BANK Moscow. Between February 28 and April 23, 2008, another 35 Russian transfers were made to the same account of the Elenast-Com Savings Bank, amounting to 200,113,800.00 of Russian rubles, on Russian accounts KPP OOO PRIMARI of OAO BANK Moskvy.

Thereafter, Elenast-Com SRL converts Russian rubles into US dollars and from February 7 to June 25, 2008 transfers from its Savings Bank account USD 37,046,875.00 to various foreign jurisdictions: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Austria , Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, China, some of the money making their way back to Russia. Destinations of transfers are the same: "advance payment for construction materials and machinery".

Totally, on the Bunicon-Impex account of Banca de Economii transferred from Moscow 1,597,134,646.00 Russian rubles and after the conversion abroad were transferred USD 66,206,908.00.

As a result of the bank operations, the Magnitsky Laundromat on the Savings Bank accounts remained with 35 million MDL fees due to the currency conversion and account maintenance operations. Beyond the money raised in February 2008 from Banca de Economii on the accounts of Latvia's offshore Kelway Trading SA, and the sum of bank commissions from the Magnitsky Laundromat will be taken out of the bank by granting bad loans to Grigore Gacikevici. be used in the plan of Veaceslav Platon, coordinated by the Russian special services, destabilizing the Republic of Moldova and exchanging power in Chisinau.

After the Magnitsky Laundromat and the devaluation of the Banca de Economii, Platon operates another blow to the Moldovan financial-banking system, the bankruptcy of InvestPrivatBank, a bank under its control since 1994, in which Gacikevici was active until 2004 as a member of the Board of Directors. In September 2008, Veaceslav Platon surrenders to the mogul bank in Bucharest, now sentenced by Romanian justice, Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, by additional shares issued by off-shore company Tabor Projects Ltd. Thus, Plato operates bankruptcy with foreign hands, acting in concert with Vantu. In just a few months since SOV took over, the amount of bad loans granted by InvestPrivatBank exceeded 500 million lei, so the bank went bankrupt.

As a result of the Magnitsky Laundromat, on February 2, 2009 Plato's man, Mihail Gofman is demoted from the post of Deputy Chief of the Prevention and Anti-Money Laundering Service, and in August 2009 he is transferred to the position of Chief of Anti-Corruption Programs of the CCECC.

According to Platon's estimates, the IPB bankruptcy package, with the devaluation of the Banca de Economii by non-performing loans, precisely during the pre-election period, was to push InvestPrivatBank depositors into the street, to destabilize the social-economic situation in Moldova, to ruin Voronin's popularity and ultimately to influence Moldovan electoral preferences.

For the most part, Platon's plan has succeeded. In June 2009, the NBM withdrew its IPB license. In order to avoid social collapse, the communist government decided that the private bank should be taken over by the state bank, Banca de Economii, which was also affected by the non-performing loans granted by Gacikevici-Platon. BEM was forced to take over the debts of InvestPrivatBank. The collapse of IPB and the devaluation of BEM played a decisive role in eroding Moldovans' confidence in Voronin and his party.

As a result, after the elections of April 5, 2009, against the background of socio-economic destabilization and attacks on the financial and banking system operated by Veaceslav Platon, the special Russian services triggered the diversionary operation "April 7", which will become known as the Twitter Revolution. With the help of social networks, a group of professional diversionists headed by Eduard Baghirov, sent to a mission in Chisinau from Moscow, succeeds in removing students from Chisinau in the streets, mobilizing them against Voronin's communist regime. The young men were to be the maneuvering table, the cannon to be used in the plan of special Russian services to overthrow Voronin's power and replace it with a loyal power to the Kremlin.

The peaceful protest of young people from Chisinau is diverted on April 7, 2009 by diversionists from the Russian special services, which devastate and fire the buildings of the Presidency and Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. Following the early elections of July 29, 2009, Voronin lost power to the Alliance for European Integration 1, made up of Vlad Filat's PLDM, "Alianta Moldova Noastra", whose lists were deputy Veaceslav Platon, PD headed by Marian Lupu, detached from the Party of Communists and the Liberal Party of Mihai Ghimpu. A few weeks ago, on 25 September 2009, Vlad Filat became Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, the first person in power in Chisinau. The plan approved by the Moscow Special Services and sincerely implemented since 2007 has been successful.

In a short time, part of the money from the Magnitsky Laundromat, washed by Platon via Banca de Economii and removed from the Republic of Moldova through the pan-European offshore Kelway Trading SA, along with those stolen through the bankruptcy of InvestPrivatBank, were to return to Chisinau , to propagandize the new power.

On April 7, 2010, exactly one year after the Twitter Revolution, two news televisions, Jurnal TV by Victor and Viorel Ţopa, and Publika TV of Sorin Ovidiu Vântu, the one who went bankrupt to IPB, started operating in Chisinau. Publika TV was to be sold the next few years several times, first being taken from Vantu by the Filat-Lucinschi tandem and then by Plahotniuc. Jurnal TV, however, will remain faithful to his financial parents, Veaceslav Platon and Victor and Viorel Topa. Regardless of the political agenda in Chisinau in recent years, the Jurnal Trust will become the main propaganda weapon in the political struggles and account adjustments of its patrons, but also one of Veaceslav Platon's main media lawyers.

In the same year, the history of November 2007 from Banca de Economii was repeated, according to the same scheme. Retrofitted in office in February 2009, Mihail Gofman appeals to the court for the demotion and in December 2009 he is reinstated. In just a few months, Veaceslav Platon was to start a new money laundering in Chisinau, the Russian Laundry Room. In Chisinau, hundreds of millions of dollars of transfers have begun to come from Moscow, only this time in Platon's MoldIndConBank. He no longer wanted to share with anyone the money from the money washed from Russia. Moreover, he set out to embrace the entire Moldovan financial-banking system with Laundromat money.

Also in 2010 begins the conflict between the former partners of VictoriaBank Victor and Viorel Topa and Vlad Plahotniuc, which was played very skillfully by Veaceslav Platon. It oscillated in the Zopa-Plahotniuc war on the one side, and on the other side, being in contact with both camps. On July 12 2010, Platon's offshore Ronida Invest LLP signs a contract with the same well-known Kelway Trading SA, which provides several million dollar transfers. In less than a month, in August 2010, Victor and Viorel Topa are publicly accused of Plahotniuc, accusing them of attacking their actions, but he is not talking about Veaceslav Platon. Although the attacks on Victor and Viorel Topa's shares in Banca de Economii and Victoriabank have been in operation since May 2010, they say, through the economic courts and the Causeni Court, subordinated to Platon. The price of silence was the transfers to Kelway Trading SA.

In August 2011, Platon takes over Moldova Agroinbank, and in November 2011 Platon takes over from Victoria Bank Bank Plahotniuc and begins to devalue this bank, through a similar scheme to BEM, non-performing loans. Immediately on December 5, 2011 Plato makes another transfer to Kelway Trading SA, worth $5 million. It was again a price of silence by Victor and Viorel Topa.

Parallel, through the Ministry of Finance, assigned within the framework of the IEA 1 of the PLDM, Vlad Filat obtained control over Banca de Economii. The heaviest times for BEM were just beginning. In 2010-2011, Moldovan Parliament's deputy and AIE member Veaceslav Platon sell bad loans from its MoldIndConBank bank by its controlled companies, SA MoldCarton, Ungheni Meat Factory, and other Banca de Economii. Thus, Platon cleansed his bank's loan portfolio, throwing his debts on the banks of Savings Bank.

Although the power in Chişinău had changed, the director of Banca de Economii remained unchanged, Grigore Gacikevici. Respectively, the process of bank devaluation continued through the provision of non-performing loans. Through the groups of businessmen Piotr Tomailî and Valentin Bodiştean, Vlad Filat's affiliates from BEM, start to leave bad loans amounting to hundreds of millions of lei.

Companies like Aroma or Moldresurse contracted from the state bank loans of millions of lei, which they did not intend to return. Loans were most often contracted through interleaved companies, and pledged properties that did not cover 10% of the credit value, artificially increased by the assistance of the rating agencies. The credits were granted by Grigore Gacikevich, the chairman of the bank, at the personal intervention of Vlad Filat. The price or better the rebate of such credit was 30% of its value. After the loan was contracted, 10% went to Grigore Gacikevici and 20% to Vlad Filat (see details here).

Hundreds of millions of dollars continue to be removed from BEM. In the 2010-2012 Banca de Economii money scheme, the same pan-European off-shore is also included in the Magnitsky file, Kelway Trading SA. According to the audit report made on December 6, 2012 at Grant Thornton at Banca de Economii, "... the destination of credits granted during 2010-2012 is the purchase and import of goods and materials in Moldova. At the same time, in the credit records there is no evidence of import of goods procured from credit sources in the Republic of Moldova. Credit files are only payment documents according to which credit was transferred to non-residents." Even though they seem to have no connection with each other, these companies have transferred the money to the same offshore companies (Samerdale Holdings Ltd and Kelway Trading SA, Panama)

On June 1, 2012, the authorities of Chisinau were informed by the Brown Rudnick law firm, contracted by the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund to investigate the Magnitsky case, that the billions of rubles transferred in 2007-2008 from Moscow to the Bunicon-Impex accounts and Elenast-Com from Banca de Economii come from the theft scheme of the state budget of the Russian Federation with the involvement of Hermtiage LTD, Firestone Duncan OOO, Mahaon OOO, Parfenion OOO and Riland OOO. It was the schema debuted in 2008 by Sergei Magnitsky, for which he was detained by the Russian special services, which protected the scheme.

On 20 June 2012, the CNA files a criminal case on the fact that the Money Savings Bank was laundering in the Magitsky Dossier. On August 17, 2012, the investigators requested the Fiscal Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance to conduct a fiscal audit at LLC Bunicon-Impex and LLC Elenast-Com. However, this request had the fate of the 2007 and 2008 appeals to the Moscow authorities, the Fical Inspectorate in Chisinau had no reaction. Veaceslav Platon had blocked control via Prime Minister Vlad Filat, under the direct subordination of the Ministry of Finance and implicitly the Fiscal Inspectorate.

In February 2014, the NAC filed a criminal case against the Russian Lundromate, and in two months, in April 2014, Mihail Gofman was dismissed from the NAC with the wording "for violating the principles of moral integrity, respect and loyalty in the Code of Conduct for Employees of the Institution."

Soon we would also find out why Prime Minister Filat had engaged in blocking the investigation of the Magnitsky Dossier. On September 12, 2014, the president of the Economy, Budget and Finance Committee of the Chisinau Parliament, Veaceslav Ionita, made public a theft scheme from Banca de Economii.

By that scheme, the money was stolen from BEM through bad loans. A key role in the scheme had the same off-shore, Kelway Trading SA, also involved in the Magnitsky Dossier. The author of the revelations shows that the beneficiary of the off-shore company is none other than Prime Minister Vlad Filat.

Even in those days, in the autumn of 2014, in Chisinau, the Russian laundry was started at peak speeds started by Veaceslav Platon in November 2007 by washing the money in the Magnitsky File and transformed in 2010 into the Russian Laundry Room. The centrifuges of that laundry left the stolen billion in the Moldovan banking system. The pan-European offshore Kelway Trading SA is not only a binder between the Russian Laundromat in the Magnitsky Droplet and Billard Theft in the Moldovan banks, but also the documentary witness that revealed the beneficiaries of the two operations, those who covered the operation of the Russian special services, the killers in Chisinau of Sergei Magnitsky.