Moldova Seeks Arrest of Convicted Oligarch Ilan Shor

Moldova has issued an arrest warrant for the businessman convicted in 2017 over the so-called ‘grand theft’ from the banking system – but who remained at liberty and is thought to have left the country.

Moldovan politician and businessman Ilan Shor gestures at a briefing in the campaign for the February 2019 legislative elections. Photo: EPA/Doru Dumitru

Moldovan law-enforcement authorities have issued a national arrest warrant for Ilan Shor, the alleged mastermind behind the “grand theft” of one billion US dollars from the Moldovan banking system in 2014, who is believed to have left the country in mid-July.

It comes after the Court of Appeal in Cahul authorized the request of the Anti-Graft Prosecutors Office for a national arrest warrant to be issued. If he is not found, as seems likely, an international arrest warrant will be filed, authorities have said.

Moldovan media reported that Shor left the country on a private plane from Chisinau International Airport immediately after the fall of the former Democratic Party government led by Pavel Filip. It has since been replaced by a new government uniting pro-EU and pro-Russian forces under Prime Minister Maia Sandu.

On Friday, in a video posted on his Facebook page, Shor said he and his family were in hiding for security reasons, and that the pro-Russian President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, and the new government led by Sandu were exerting political pressure on his case.

He also said that he would soon reveal a lot of damaging information about the business activities of President Dodon. He did not specify where he was.

Although restrictions already placed on him should have prevented him from leaving the country, Shor did so anyway. A prosecution investigation said he illegally crossed the state border without passing customs and border controls.

Border police sources told BIRN that both Shor and former Democratic Party leader Vlad Plahotniuc left via a special runway at Chisinau Airport over which there are no border controls or even security cameras. They said it had been left like that on purpose for years by the former ruling party.

One of the many companies that Shor owns runs the airport.

In 2015, Shor was placed under house arrest as part of the probe into the huge billion-dollar bank fraud, which later led to his conviction in June 2017.

Shor was then sentenced in a first-instance verdict to seven-and-a-half years in jail for bank fraud. But he remained free and politically active pending appeals. His party won seven seats in the February general elections.

Shor is one of the wealthiest men in Moldova, having strong business connections in Russia and Israel. His fortune is related to businesses ranging from banks and insurance companies to real estate firms and duty-free border shops as well as the company that owns Chisinau Airport.